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Personalized Medicine Privacy inhibits medical progress
Today, modern medicine already enables individually adapted therapies in many places, which offer particularly high chances of success. In the future, personalized medicine will, in the opinion of experts, open up completely new opportunities in the treatment of diseases. But it requires a broad exchange of patient data, which is difficult to reconcile with data protection law in some places.
At the so-called Latsis symposium at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), experts discussed the possibilities of personalized medicine and appealed to politicians to design data protection legislation in such a way that no disabilities occur. According to experts, personalization is a promising advancement of medicine.
Personalized medicine offers many opportunities for the future, but privacy is a particular challenge here. (Image: vege / fotolia.com) Personalized medicine more than individual therapies
Behind the term "personalized medicine" is hidden much more than the individual orientation of the therapy to the needs of the patients. The patient data should be grouped anonymously and standardized in large databases that interested researchers and physicians can access and evaluate, the ETZH reports. In the opinion of the experts, this would take medical basic research and treatment quality a step further for the individual patients.
New methods allow comprehensive analyzes
With the new possibilities offered by molecular methods of medicine, it has become "affordable to determine the genetic makeup of patients, pathogens and tumor cells, as well as the entirety of proteins and metabolites," reports the ETZH. Compared to earlier, much more disease-relevant data is available today and, in addition, with modern methods, individual diseases could be molecularly divided into ever finer subgroups, which may require different therapies. More than 200 scientists discussed the opportunities and challenges of personalized medicine at the ETH Zurich's three-day Latsis Symposium.
Personalized medicine already in use today
Although the description of the experts still sounds like a dream of the future, Roger Stupp, Director of the Clinic for Oncology at the University Hospital Zurich, emphasized at the symposium: "We are already doing personalized medicine!" Mark Rubin, a professor at Cornell University, explained using the example of cancer medicine the importance of the individual determination of the genetic blueprint of the tumor cells in the diagnosis and treatment planning. The regular exchange of oncologists from different clinics to jointly discuss treatment options for patients is already taking place. In his view, an even wider exchange of patient data would mean tremendous opportunities for medicine, and in particular for cancer medicine.
Worldwide data exchange required?
A worldwide exchange of patient data is the prerequisite for personalized medicine, says Professor Holger Moch from the University Hospital Zurich, describing the main conclusion of the symposium. "The key to success is building an infrastructure that many clinics can use to share data," says Mark Rubin. This is a major project, an investment in the future, comparable to the planning and construction of the Gotthard Base Tunnel. However, according to the experts, such a comprehensive electronic health database would enable a significant increase in quality in medicine.
Close framework of data protection
On the way to a comprehensive health database, however, questions of data protection and protection against abuse must first be resolved, the experts emphasize. Because the "genome data could not be more personal" and with them, not only could a person be clearly characterized, but also a great deal of information could be read out, for example on susceptibility to hereditary diseases. However, the experts consider the current framework of data protection law as too narrow and see a hindrance of the "for personalized medicine so important data exchange." The legislature tries to protect patients, but thereby hinder the medical progress, especially in the interests of patients the oncologist Roger Stupp is quoted in the ETZH communication. The doctors are pressed a protection need on the eye, which does not correspond to the reality, so the conclusion of Stupp. (Fp)