Victoria Sampson explores diagnostic testing and how it can improve the patient journey.
For nearly a century, our medical colleagues have been using diagnostic testing – such as blood chemistry and bacteriology – to improve diagnostics and enhance the patient journey. In the early 1950s, scientists started to realise the need for evidence-based medicine. They found that although individuals are 99.1% identical, the remaining 0.9% of interindividual genetic variability is responsible for varying responses to treatments and medications.
With the completion of the human genome project in 2003, it catalysed the use in genetic information for tailored healthcare (National Institutes of Health, 2007).
In the last two decades, the shift has gone from evidence-based medicine to personalised medicine, whereby combining the human genome, environmental factors, disease assessments and medication, doctors can achieve a better therapeutic outcome (National Institutes of Health, 2007).
Fast-forward to the last decade, the shift has now gone from personalised medicine in the hands of clinicians to direct-to-consumer testing, thus allowing patients to feel empowered by their own health.
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