The goal of personalized medicine is to individualize health care by using knowledge of patients’ health history, behaviors, environments, and, most importantly, genetic variation when making clinical decisions. Research on genetics has provided advances that can be used to more accurately predict the risk of developing certain diseases, personalize screening and surveillance protocols and, in some cases, prevent the onset of disease.

 

In certain cases, genetics can also be used to diagnose diseases and tailor therapies and disease management strategies. These advancements in personalized medicine rely on knowledge of how a patient’s genotype (genetic makeup) influences his or her phenotype (observable traits or characteristics). Using the principles of personalized medicine, health care providers may be better equipped to move beyond the “one-size-fits-all” approach that defined much of patient care in the past, to care that is appropriate for unique patient subgroups.  1