Get THE healthcare you deserve!

Nowadays it’s not rare at all to get products or services customized only for you: T-shirts with your “Maybe I’m wired…so what? “declaration, personal fitness plan with your gym coach and even the automobiles manufactured just for you according to your order checklist. Essentially this is a world where differentiation and uniqueness is highly favorable and being chased beyond extreme. Yet, when it comes to healthcare, one of the most critical services you’ve been receiving in your life, customization turns out less than satisfactory and is just taking off on its way.

Precisely, it may not be fair to say this is a brand-new idea. Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems with a Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) have existed for more than 30 years since 1980s. BY 2001 three billion nucleotide base pairs (letters of DNA code) in human genome has been conquered by scientists through Human Genome Project starting in 1986. Our borned distinction is finally proved by science in terms of gene expression profiling and mysterious codes in our DNA. Personalized medicine, the idea of tailoring such difference with customized medications and therapies based on individual genetic profile,has been theorefore existed for near a decade with the big biotechnology business area of telemedicine. All in all, as the most important two aspects of personalized healthcare, EMR and telemedicine reveal the underlying essence of this concept-- Right treatment for the right patient at the right time.

Sounds like a really exciting start. However, in regarding of the population reaching such service and the scope of practice involved, there are indeed far more work to do. After nearly two years of the passage of HITECH Act, the adoption rate of EMR in United States is still slightly over 50% as by the end of 2010. While telemedicine practice becomes relatively mature, concerns around security of such sensitive information as one’s health record and medicine doses are increasingly drawing public attentions. And at the center of all those issues is the argument of how information and communication technologies, which triggered the personalized trend of healthcare at the first place, could be better enhanced and applied into serving for our social welfare and individual well-being. To seek anwsers to this question, it's worthwhile to further exam the history and frontier of personalized healthcare, which will be the topic of my next post.