Precision medicine in Morocco: State of art and challenges for implementation

Abstract

Precision Medicine (PM) is an innovative approach that takes into account individuals' genetic differences, environments, and lifestyles to provide personalised patient care. Policy development for PM implementation requires assessing a wide range of issues extending from knowledge and skills in terms of OMICs, specimen collection and management, as well as data analyses and sharing to whether and how to utilise advanced technologies for diagnosis, clinical practice and diverse public health initiatives. For this purpose, within the “Personalized Medicine in North Africa” (PerMediNA) project, we conducted a survey among Moroccan scientists, physicians, and stakeholders with an interest in genomics and PM. The survey aimed to evaluate their knowledge and understanding of the field, the institutional environment and infrastructure availability, the state and awareness of the field in their contexts, information dissemination to potential users, training programs, and capacity building for specialised personnel, as well as engaging political stakeholders and policymakers. As a summary, based on various stakeholders’ feedback, in addition to our effort in exploring the challenges faced when putting in place genomic medicine programs, we were enabled to formulate feasible recommendations that may be applicable to start the process of implementing and strengthening PM in the Moroccan context.