It is important to remember that even though the pharmaceutical industry has made a lot of progress in making successful medicines, standard methods will only work for some people. Studies show that only 30 to 50 percent of people get better completely. So, there may need to be more than one way to approach health in order to meet everyone’s needs. Unfortunately, some patients might not respond to the treatment, which would mean a lot of time and money wasted on trial and error. There are very bad outcomes that could happen to these people, and tens of billions of dollars are spent on medicines that don’t work.
There has been a move toward divided medicine for many years. This method sorts patients into groups based on the type of disease they have, the presence of biomarkers, the number of responders and non-responders, their clinical features, and any single-gene changes that are linked to monogenic disease. The goal of this approach is to give each patient individualized care and treatment.
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What Does Precision Medicine Mean?
The idea behind precision medicine is that a patient’s reaction to treatment is affected by their unique genes, their complicated biology, and outside factors. Because of this, precision medicine makes sure that each patient gets the best care possible by using a correct diagnosis, a deep understanding of how diseases work and the different treatments that can be used, as well as a lot of different information about each patient, like their genetics and metabolism, lab and test results, and even their lifestyle, environmental conditions, and treatment preferences. That is, the goal is to give “the right treatment to the right patient at the right time.”
In some cases, this means figuring out which treatment choices are already out there that are best for a patient based on information about that patient and how other patients have responded to certain drugs. In other cases, it may mean making a medicine that is specifically made for the patient, like a custom cell treatment or substitute tissue. Even though they are different, getting either of these cases is a great job of collecting data, analyzing it, making predictions, and using it in clinical practice.
The ultimate goal of precision medicine is to fully utilize complex multimodal data and advanced technologies so that patients receive the exact care they require. This is a big change from the traditional model, where only about 60% of care is thought to be necessary, 30% is thought to be wasteful, and 10% is thought to be harmful. We can only effectively treat diseases like cancer if we accept and work with how each person’s disease shows up, taking into account their unique genetics and trait.
Medicine that is tailored to hospice and long-term care (Hospice & LTC Pharmacy)
Precision medicine is a new way to treat people that makes healthcare choices and actions more specific for each patient by looking at their genes, genome, and surroundings. This plan aims to make treatments work better while reducing their bad effects as much as possible.
When it comes to palliative and long-term care (LTC) pharmacy, precision medicine can be very helpful for people who have complicated medical problems and a short life span. Here are some ways that precision medicine can be used in hospice and long-term care pharmacies:
- Pharmacogenomics: is the study of how a person’s genes affect how well they respond to drugs. By looking at a patient’s genetic makeup, doctors can find specific genetic differences that might change how drugs work, how safe they are, or how well they work. Using this knowledge to make changes to medicine schedules can help lower bad drug reactions and improve treatment results.
- Personalized pain management: Many hospice and long-term care patients have ongoing pain because of underlying health problems. Precision medicine can help doctors find the best painkillers and doses for each patient by looking at their unique genetic and metabolic patterns. This approach may help people with pain feel better and lower their risk of having bad effects from painkillers.
- Disease-Specific Treatments: Precision medicine helps us learn more about how many illnesses work at the genetic level. With this knowledge, doctors can focus on specific genetic processes that are causing the disease to get worse. This method might lead to more focused and successful treatments, mostly when standard methods don’t work or are dangerous.
- Risk Assessment and Early Intervention: Genetic tests and predictive analytics can help doctors figure out which patients are more likely to get certain diseases or have problems with their treatments. When these risks are identified early on, reasonable steps can be taken to reduce their effects and improve the handling of possible bad events.
- Ethical Considerations: Using precision medicine in hospice and long-term care settings means thinking about ethical issues like patient liberty, privacy, and the chance of making healthcare more unequal. It is very important to let patients and their families know about the pros, cons, and limits of using genetic information to decide on a treatment.
- Collaborative Care: For hospice and long-term care pharmacies to use precision medicine, pharmacists, doctors, genetic counselors, and other experts must work together. Multidisciplinary teams can successfully use DNA information to help plan treatments for patients.
In hospice and long-term care situations, precision medicine usually claims to improve patient results and quality of life. As study and technology keep getting better, precision medicine concepts are likely to become more common in pharmacy practice. Still, it’s important to keep social issues in mind and make sure that patients’ rights and wishes are observed at all times.