Precision health takes into account differences in people’s genes, environments and lifestyles and formulates wellbeing support, health promotion and disease treatment strategies based on the individual’s unique backgrounds and conditions. We aim to marry both high-tech and high-touch approaches to tailor healthcare recommendations to the unique biology and life circumstances of each individual. Precision Health represents a fundamental shift to more proactive and personalised care that empowers people to lead healthy lives. It is a transformation from a ‘sick-care’ based model of medicine to personalized healthcare.
Your genes, behaviors (such as exercise and eating habits), and environment are all factors that affect your health. The goal of precision health is to protect your health by measuring these factors and acting on them. Interventions can be tailored to you, rather than using the same approach for everyone.
You might have heard the terms “precision medicine” and “precision health” and wondered how they relate to you. Precision medicine, also called personalized medicine, helps your doctor find your unique disease risks and treatments that will work best for you. Precision health is broader—it includes precision medicine but also approaches that occur outside the setting of a doctor’s office or hospital, such as disease prevention and health promotion activities. Precision health involves approaches that everyone can do on their own to protect their health as well as steps that public health can take (sometimes called “precision public health”).
Let’s explore how precision health approaches can better predict, prevent, treat, and manage disease for you and your family.
- Family health history can help you know which diseases you are more likely to get: Having family members with certain chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, or cancer, can sometimes mean you are more likely to get that disease. Collecting your family health history and sharing it with your doctor can help you take steps to prevent disease or find it early. In some cases, your doctor might recommend genetic counseling and testing for a disease that runs in your family.
- Personal devices can keep track of your health information: Mobile health applications on your smart device are an easy way to track information, such as nutrition, physical activity, and blood pressure. Measurements are taken in real-time and can inform you of progress and even alert you to changes that could mean you need to seek medical care, although these devices are not a replacement for regular checkups.
- Medical options can prevent disease in people with inherited conditions: Some people have inherited conditions that make them more likely to get a disease. Women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation are more likely to get breast or ovarian cancer, and men with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation have an increased risk for some cancers as well. People with Lynch syndrome are more likely to get colorectal (colon) and other cancers. People with familial hypercholesterolemia are more likely to develop heart disease at a younger age and to die from the disease. However, if you have one of these conditions, knowing about it can allow you to take steps to prevent the disease or find it early. Medical options can include screening earlier or more often, taking medicine, or having surgery.
- Biomarker testing can help your doctor choose the best treatment: Biomarker testing (also called tumor profiling or tumor genetic testing) looks at genetic or other changes in solid tumors and blood cancers. Finding these changes can help doctors choose a treatment that’s most likely to work. Even if two people have the same type of cancer, they may need different treatments. Biomarker testing can also predict if the cancer is more likely to return, which can help people decide whether to have treatments, such as chemotherapy or radiation.
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