Precision medicine: course correction urgently needed

An undeclared civil war is breaking out in biomedicine. On one side is precision medicine, with its emphasis on tailoring treatments to ever-narrower groups of patients. On the other side is population health, which emphasizes predominantly preventive interventions that have broad applications across populations.

Which vision will provide the most durable and efficient path to improved health for all?

Precision medicine is a merger of molecular genetics, the dominant vision in biology, and genomics, the expression of that vision in human health. Disregarding the “breakthrough” announcements that appear on a regular basis, the question of whether precision medicine will lead to better health for all remains an open one.

The full STAT article can be viewed at this link.