Personalized medicine is something that will completely change the landscape of the medicine for good. All the current health care issues et al will be relic sometime this century. For all its shortcomings and apocalyptic visions bio-tech revolution vividly provides, no one can argue about its ability to end lot of suffering. That sole reason has been my urge to learn a thing or two about it.
A very informative new book Language of Life by Francis S. Collins, offers a pleasant prospect. This doesn't sound like a book to lend from library but I am sure, I will paying Amazon for it. Great review:
A very informative new book Language of Life by Francis S. Collins, offers a pleasant prospect. This doesn't sound like a book to lend from library but I am sure, I will paying Amazon for it. Great review:
"As an introduction to the science that could one day deliver routine personalised medicine, this is an excellent book. Collins gives an impressively up-to-date treatment of the genetics of cancer, race, infectious disease, ageing, the brain and our varying responses to drugs. The narrative is strongest when he frames the issues through real stories of individual patients.
But Collins also wants to provide a contemporary "user's guide", concluding each chapter with a section entitled: "What you can do now to join the personalized medicine revolution." Again, it's hard not to question his timing. He offers sage advice on drawing up a family health history, and getting screened for early signs of conditions to which you are prone. But there is little on how to interpret genetic tests, and some comments smack of desperation.
"Personalizing your approach to avoiding infectious diseases includes knowing and practicing the principles of safe sex," Collins tells us, leaving readers to wonder where the personalisation of this ubiquitous message comes in.
I see Collins as a cheerleader for a revolution that hasn't arrived quite yet, and I fear that his enthusiasm has blinded him to some potential pitfalls. In his concluding chapter, Collins presents two visions of the future: one in which members of a nuclear family live to a contented old age thanks to personalised medicine and one in which they are condemned to early graves through obesity and ignorance."
But Collins also wants to provide a contemporary "user's guide", concluding each chapter with a section entitled: "What you can do now to join the personalized medicine revolution." Again, it's hard not to question his timing. He offers sage advice on drawing up a family health history, and getting screened for early signs of conditions to which you are prone. But there is little on how to interpret genetic tests, and some comments smack of desperation.
"Personalizing your approach to avoiding infectious diseases includes knowing and practicing the principles of safe sex," Collins tells us, leaving readers to wonder where the personalisation of this ubiquitous message comes in.
I see Collins as a cheerleader for a revolution that hasn't arrived quite yet, and I fear that his enthusiasm has blinded him to some potential pitfalls. In his concluding chapter, Collins presents two visions of the future: one in which members of a nuclear family live to a contented old age thanks to personalised medicine and one in which they are condemned to early graves through obesity and ignorance."
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