Personalized Medicine Will Transform Healthcare

Thought leaders in academic medicine have been pushing hospitals and medical practices to adhere more closely to evidence-based clinical guidelines, which some call standardized medicine. But many docs in the trenches complain that when it comes to patient care, the one-size-fits-all rule just doesn't work.

And for good reason. When you work day after day with patients, you quickly realize that while the results of large-scale, randomized clinical trials may apply to the population as a whole, they don't apply to every individual member. That's what makes personalized medicine is so exciting.

Personalized medicine's goal is to use a patient's genetic makeup, lifestyle, age, gender, and environment to provide a tailored treatment regimen. And information technology is playing a pivotal role in making that goal a reality.