The future of medicine

Abstract

When people in ancient Greece needed advice on their future, they usually turned to local forecasting institutions, a popular and respected service at that time. The most famous amongst these was the Oracle of Delphi, where gods, demigods and celebrities listened to a priestess describing their future in twisted words. The only problem with the oracle's predictions was that they were often not clearly comprehensible and so it was the priests’ task to translate the priestess's words. Although the Oracle of Delphi closed its business a long time ago, the possibility of predicting the future has continued to fascinate mankind, as can be seen in the unbroken belief in palm readers, tarot cards or analysts’ predictions of the NASDAQ. Today, we are witnessing the building of the modern version of the Oracle of Delphi. The combination of genomics, genetic diagnosis technologies and powerful computers promises not less than to eradicate all leading causes of death in the First World that we have not yet found a cure for. ‘Personalised’, ‘genetic’ or ‘molecular medicine’, as it has been dubbed, has become the battle cry to describe the future of health care (Papavassiliou, 2001). No wonder this venture has drawn considerable interest from private enterprises and governments, as well as patient organisations. But the path to a bright future where cancer, coronary heart disease, obesity or Alzheimer's disease will be eliminated is littered with legal, organisational and social obstacles. Personalised medicine is becoming possible now that the information from the Human Genome Project, which will eventually identify all human genes and their functions, is pouring in. At the same time, epidemiology (classical as well as on a molecular basis), genetic and medical research are clarifying the role that certain genes and their variations play in the pathogenesis of the most important diseases. …