[Integrative and personalized health care--requirements for a timely health-care system]

Abstract

In medical and public debates, the concept "personalized" or "individualized" medicine (PM) is increasingly used for the orientation of medicine towards individual genetic, molecular and biological characteristics. However, this tunnel view neglects that the human "person" or "individual" encompasses more than just the molecular and biological side, and that patients increasingly call for a more holistic and more person-centred form of health care. Therefore the authors propose to extend the concept of PM in the framework of an integrative health-care concept, so that with respect to a modern and patient-centred health-care system not only the biological, but also the relevant psychological, mental, social, cultural, spiritual, and economic aspects of the human individual are accounted for in health care. The Faculty of Health of Witten/Herdecke University proposes the term "integrative and personalised health care" for such a holistic form of PM.