Personalized Medicine: A Patient Primer On Best Practice

22 Mar 2017

• By William Looney

Personalized medicine is focused on meeting patients’ needs, but it also has the potential to transform the delivery and financing of health care. In Vivo probes the path toward meeting both goals in an in-depth interview with Eleanor Perfetto, SVP for strategic initiatives at the National Health Council, the DC-based patient advocacy organization whose members include groups representing 133 million patients nationwide.

Perfetto_Eleanor_1200x675 — Eleanor Perfetto, PhD

Every missive, every map and model, on the evolving landscape of personalized medicine puts the patient at the center. Yet it’s surprising that many patient advocates don’t feel their perspective is adequately captured as this new treatment paradigm matures from a conceptual vision in the medical literature to an institutional reality at the point of care. One word defines what patient groups want from a system that promises the right medicine, for the right person, at the right time. That word is clarity – about the patient role in the way science and regulation are applied to develop new medicines and how commerce intervenes to set their value and access in the marketplace.

The stake for patients in the process around both is self-evident – but will more clarity bring more clout in...