The Problem And Promise Of Precision Medicine | TIME

A recent announcement of massive funding toward precision medicine by President Obama administration is prompting a bearish sentiment among medical businesses. Tom Maniatis, director of the Columbia University Precision Medicine Initiative, discusses the future of precision medicine as it relates to treating deadly diseases.

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The Problem And Promise Of Precision Medicine | TIME

[mSingh-fhfz]

Precision medicine, on the surface, seems to be a great idea - revolutionary, even. But, behind the first few layers, problems arise, and those issues mostly have to do with security and privacy. The ethical dilemma I see proposed by precision medicine is: does the medical world move forward with precision medicine in the hopes that it will drastically reduce mortality and improve patient lives, even though some results of precision medicine could decimate the profits of the pharmaceutical industry, reduce jobs, and change the face of medicine in such a way that it perhaps becomes less profitable. As far as a matter of logistics and economics, I have no opinion, but regarding the ethical questions, I believe the answer is clear. Avoiding advancements in medicine for any other reason other than patient safety and wellness is unethical. While I think curing disease and ensuring it does not recur is more complicated than taking one target pill or injection, I think that to ignore precision medicine would be a violation of beneficence. Beneficence is one of the four ethical principles of medicine, and it is defined as the obligation a physician has to promote the most good. It is an obvious conclusion, then, that if precision medicine promotes that good, healthcare workers have every obligation to pursue it as a treatment for their patients. Understanding more about precision medicine's downsides, which will only come through broad implementation within the general population, may alter this opinion in time.

[akaWellnessbyAnnette]

The cost of Precision Medicine may be reduced if:
1) drugs aren't pushed for each patient
2) ultimately, we have a healthier population, less need to use insurance, fewer sick days and disabilities = people can earn more money?
3) a healthier population often is a happier, more emotionally stable population. It would be interesting to follow if this reduces violence (not saying 'eliminate' because there will probably always be outliers).

[cutie-]

The problem is that if Obama had anything to say/do about it. That alone is a BIG PROBLEM