This book presents the promises of Precision Medicine (PM) and the challenges of its implementation in daily clinical routine, while addressing the anticipated ethical and social implications. It is the first book that critically analyzes the potential and the dilemmas relevant to genomics and precision medicine from healthcare, public health and global perspectives. The nine chapters presented in this book elaborate on pharmacogenomics' crucial role in maximizing the potential benefits and minimizing medication's potential risks in groups of people, especially in cancer treatment and other health conditions. Infectious and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are also discussed in this book by identifying challenges and ways to overcome them. Essential concepts are addressed, such as health-related benefits and harm to individuals and the broader community, including threats to individual privacy and autonomy, which warrant just distribution of scarce resources. The book also identifies and addresses the lack of competency in the healthcare workforce in the era of PM and discusses the path to laying the ethical foundation for the implementation of PM in healthcare organizations.

The panorama of bioethical problems is different today. Patients travel to Thailand for fast surgery; commercial surrogate mothers in India deliver babies to parents in rich countries; organs, body parts and tissues are trafficked from East to Western Europe; physicians and nurses migrating from Africa to the U.S; thousands of children or patients with malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS are dying each day because they cannot afford effective drugs that are too expensive. Mainstream bioethics as it has developed during the last 50 years in Western countries is evolving into a broader approach that is relevant for people across the world and is focused on new global problems. This book provides an introduction into the new field of global bioethics. Addressing these problems requires a broader vision of bioethics that not only goes beyond the current emphasis on individual autonomy, but that criticizes the social, economic and political context that is producing the problems at global level. This book argues that global bioethics is a necessity because the social, economic and environmental effects of globalization require critical responses. Global bioethics is not a finished product that can simply be applied to solve global problems, but it is the ongoing result of interaction and exchange between local practices and global discourse. It combines recognition of differences and respect for cultural diversity with convergence towards common perspectives and shared values. The book examines the nature of global problems as well as the type of responses that are needed, in order to exemplify the substance of global bioethics. It discusses the ethical frameworks that are available for global discourse and shows how these are transformed into global governance mechanisms and practices.

Progress and Challenges in Precision Medicine presents an insightful overview to the myriad factors of personalized and precision medicine. The availability of the human genome, large amounts of data on individual genetic variations, environmental interactions, influence of lifestyle, and cutting-edge tools and technologies for big-data analysis have led to the age of personalized and precision medicine. Bringing together a global range of experts on precision medicine, this book collects previously scattered information into one concise volume which covers the most important developments so far in precision medicine and also suggests the most likely avenues for future development. The book includes clinical information, informatics, public policy implications, and information on case studies. It is a useful reference and background work for students, researchers, and clinicians working in the biomedical and medical fields, as well as policymakers in the health sciences. - Provides an overview of the growing field of precision medicine - Contains chapters from geographically diverse experts in their field - Explores important aspects of precision medicine, including applications, ethics, and development

The author uses decades of experience and interviews with experts in precision medicine to explain past, present, and future of precision medicine. She reviews the full continuum of personalizing precision medicine, including diagnostics, therapeutics, big data, supportive care, regulation, and reimbursement and innovation in precision medicine worldwide. • Combines a unique cross section of history, current technologies, and future directions for how precision medicine has and will affect people worldwide • Reviews precision medicine around the world, including the US, China, Japan, the Middle East, India, Europe, and Latin America • Discusses a number of diseases areas – cancer, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, infectious disease, pain, immunology, rare diseases • Includes information and quotes from over 100 interviews with key industry experts in biotech, pharma, informatics, diagnostics, health providers, advocacy groups, and more. • Includes stories illustrating current issues and future promises in precision medicine for a human touch

Motivated by the explosion of molecular data on humans-particularly data associated with individual patients-and the sense that there are large, as-yet-untapped opportunities to use this data to improve health outcomes, Toward Precision Medicine explores the feasibility and need for "a new taxonomy of human disease based on molecular biology" and develops a potential framework for creating one. The book says that a new data network that integrates emerging research on the molecular makeup of diseases with clinical data on individual patients could drive the development of a more accurate classification of diseases and ultimately enhance diagnosis and treatment. The "new taxonomy" that emerges would define diseases by their underlying molecular causes and other factors in addition to their traditional physical signs and symptoms. The book adds that the new data network could also improve biomedical research by enabling scientists to access patients' information during treatment while still protecting their rights. This would allow the marriage of molecular research and clinical data at the point of care, as opposed to research information continuing to reside primarily in academia. Toward Precision Medicine notes that moving toward individualized medicine requires that researchers and health care providers have access to very large sets of health- and disease-related data linked to individual patients. These data are also critical for developing the information commons, the knowledge network of disease, and ultimately the new taxonomy.

The enormous advances in nanomedicine and precision medicine in the past two decades necessitated this comprehensive reference, which can be relied upon by researchers, clinicians, pharmaceutical scientists, regulators, policymakers, and lawyers alike. This standalone, full-color resource broadly surveys innovative technologies and advances pertaining to nanomedicine and precision medicine. In addition, it addresses often-neglected yet crucial areas such as translational medicine, intellectual property law, ethics, policy, FDA regulatory issues, nano-nomenclature, and artificial nano-machines—all accomplished in a user-friendly, broad yet interconnected format. The book is essential reading for the novice and the expert alike in diverse fields such as medicine, law, pharmacy, genomics, biomedical sciences, ethics, and regulatory science. The book’s multidisciplinary approach will attract a global audience and serve as a valuable reference resource for industry, academia, and government.

Precision Medicine and Artificial Intelligence: The Perfect Fit for Autoimmunity covers background on artificial intelligence (AI), its link to precision medicine (PM), and examples of AI in healthcare, especially autoimmunity. The book highlights future perspectives and potential directions as AI has gained significant attention during the past decade. Autoimmune diseases are complex and heterogeneous conditions, but exciting new developments and implementation tactics surrounding automated systems have enabled the generation of large datasets, making autoimmunity an ideal target for AI and precision medicine. More and more diagnostic products utilize AI, which is also starting to be supported by regulatory agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Knowledge generation by leveraging large datasets including demographic, environmental, clinical and biomarker data has the potential to not only impact the diagnosis of patients, but also disease prediction, prognosis and treatment options. - Allows the readers to gain an overview on precision medicine for autoimmune diseases leveraging AI solutions - Provides background, milestone and examples of precision medicine - Outlines the paradigm shift towards precision medicine driven by value-based systems - Discusses future applications of precision medicine research using AI - Other aspects covered in the book include regulatory insights, data analytics and visualization, types of biomarkers as well as the role of the patient in precision medicine

The book provides a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary discussion of the ethos and ethics of precision / personal medicine, involving scientists who have shaped the field, in dialogue with ethicists, social scientists and philosophers of science.

This volume presents the proceedings of the 3rd ICBHI which took place in Thessaloniki on 18-21 November, 2017.The area of biomedical and health informatics is exploding at all scales. The developments in the areas of medical devices, eHealth and personalized health as enabling factors for the evolution of precision medicine are quickly developing and demand the development of new scaling tools, integration frameworks and methodologies.

This book provides innovative practical suggestions regarding the production and management of medical records that are designed to address the inconsistencies and errors that have been highlighted especially in relation to national eHealth programs. Challenges and lessons that have emerged from the use of clinical information and the design of medical records are discussed, and principles underpinning the implementation of health IT are critically examined. New trends in the use of clinical data are explored in depth, with analysis of issues relating to integration and sharing of patient information, data visualization, big data analytics, and the requirements of modern electronic health records. The spirit pervading the book is one of co-production, in which the needs of practitioners are taken into account from the outset. Readers will learn the basic concepts of how clinical information emanating from the doctor–patient relationship can be effectively integrated with genetic and environmental data and analyzed by complex algorithms with the goal of improving medical decision making and patient care. The book, written by European experts and researchers, will be of interest to all stakeholders in the field, including doctors, technicians, and policy makers.