Personalised Medicine for the European citizen - towards more precise medicine for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease

Healthcare is on the brink of a revolution precipitated by dramatic advances in biomedical research. The ability to distinguish, at the molecular level, what makes one person different from another lies at the heart of this fundamental shift. Combined, these developments will change our approach to medicine from finding cures towards individualised prediction, diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

Individualised biological profiles will increasingly be used to determine a person’s individual healthcare needs. This paradigm shift, titled ‘personalised medicine’, not only involves biomedical and technological issues, but likely also impinges on overarching societal, ethical, financial and legal questions.

In order to gain insight into this shift towards what is called today ‘personalised medicine’, and into the needs in terms of research programmes, infrastructures, policy and education, the European Science Foundation (ESF) has decided to launch an foresight exercise – a Forward Look - to explore the scientific and social aspects of how personalised medicine might advance in the future. Due to the broad and complex basis of this area, the present Forward Look is fully supported by all ESF Standing Committees including the Standing Committees for Life, Earth & Environment (LESC), Medical Sciences (EMRC), Social Sciences (SCSS), Physical and Engineering Sciences (PESC) and the Humanities (SCH).