A European view on the future of personalised medicine in the EU

Abstract

At the European Health Forum Gastein in October 2010, personalized medicine was presented as a new paradigm for health care in Europe. I had the opportunity to participate in this session and to listen to the views of my esteemed co-participants on what can be done at the European level to achieve implementation of personalized medicine approaches and other emerging technologies. Personalized medicine is becoming an ever more important area for the application of genome-based information and technologies identified under public health genomics. The scope and vision of public health genomics, according to the 2005 Bellagio Conference1 is ‘the responsible and effective translation of genome-based knowledge and technologies for the benefit of population health’. This concept encompasses both population and individual health. It covers prevention, treatment and care. Genomics is clearly an area of innovative research that seeks to close the evidence gap of today's biomedical and health research. This is an important area of potential innovation in Europe. As the Commission has set out in the Europe 2020 strategy and its related initiatives, it is essential for Europe to build on our strengths to develop innovations to promote growth and benefit European citizens. Genomics has …