Precision medicine is mainly about genome-driven
clinical decision-making which is the use of genome
data from the patient to decide on tailoring the best
treatment for the patient. The completion of the human
genome project in 2003 has paved the way for a deeper
understanding of diseases at the molecular level. The
term genomics medicine has since emerged as
clinicians and researchers capitalized on the
knowledge of the genome to improve the management
of many diseases. In the past decade, the term
personalized or precision medicine was introduced to
represent the tailoring of treatment to each individual
based on a person’s unique genetic makeup,
environment and lifestyle [1]. The coining of the term
precision medicine, as opposed to the more common
term ‘personalised medicine’, was intended to
highlight the principle that subgroups of patients could
be defined, often by genomics, and given treatment in
more specific ways [2]. In simple terms, it means
giving the right treatment to the right patient at the
right time with the right outcome. The concept is not
entirely new as it has been applied before in the
practice of blood transfusion where each patient is
given the appropriate blood units based on their blood
groups. However, the emergence of genome data has
allowed a more comprehensive application of
personalized medicine to make it more precise. The
unravelling of the molecular events in certain diseases
like cancers has also led to the development of targeted
therapies. (Copied from article)