Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-2011

Comments

This article has been peer reviewed. It is the authors' final version prior to publication in Clinical and Translational Science

Volume 4, Issue 2, April 2011, Pages 84-86.

The published version is available at DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-8062.2011.00271.x. Copyright © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Abstract

Individualization of patient care is creating an envisioned future in which practitioners wield a new doctor’s bag deploying individual molecular, genetic, cellular, and systems profiles. These emerging tools are refining traditional paradigms of disease palliation into nuanced patient management algorithms employing prognostic risk stratification, therapeutic response prediction, and adverse event avoidance. Advancing technologies are enabling a shift to more proximal nodes along the continuum of pathobiology. Innovations in biomarker platforms, genomic profiling, and molecular imaging reveal the earliest stages of pathophysiology, limiting systems disruption to cells and tissues while preserving integrated organ function, enabling risk mitigation and disease prevention. At even earlier stages, the interplay of genetics, epigenetics, environmental exposures, nutrition, and lifestyle define a roadmap to the clinical nonpareil of disease avoidance. Broad dissemination of these principles into global healthcare paradigms changes the dynamics and economics of health across populations. Realization of these algorithms transforms healthcare from the tradition of relieving pain and suffering to a future maintaining longitudinal wellness and healthy aging.

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