Personalized medicine – challenge for healthcare system: a perspective paper

Abstract: Personalized Medicine is a challenge for healthcare systems in Central and Eastern Europe if they are to provide patients with personalized diagnosis and treatment. Personalized medicine (PM) is about tailoring a treatment as individualized as the disease. [1 Integrated care involves receiving care along a continuum of health promotion, disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, disease-management, rehabilitation and palliative care services, coordinated across the different levels and sites of care within and beyond the health sector, and according to the needs of patients throughout the life course. [2] Personalized Medicine and Integrated Care are among the most important concepts related to the management and organization of healthcare systems. This article intends to identify challenges to the adoption of personalized medicine and stimulate fruitful dialogue and debate about the evaluation of barriers and facilitators within the implementation of personalized medicine interventions, identify the barriers and take systematic actions to remove as many of them as possible to create a future where PM is fully integrated into real-life settings.