Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jun;24(2):247-253.
doi: 10.1007/s11019-020-09997-6. Epub 2021 Jan 3.

The personalized medicine discourse: archaeology and genealogy

Alfredo Cesario  1   2 , Franziska Michaela Lohmeyer  1 , Marika D'Oria  3 , Andrea Manto  4   5 , Giovanni Scambia  1   6
Affiliations

The personalized medicine discourse: archaeology and genealogy

Alfredo Cesario et al. Med Health Care Philos. 2021 Jun.

Abstract

Personalized Medicine (PM) is an evolving and often missinterpreted concept and no agreement of personalization exist. We examined the PM discourse towards foucauldian archeological and genealogical analysis to understand the meaning of "personalization" in medicine. In the archaeological analysis, the historical evolution is characterized by the coexistence of two epistemologies: the holistic vision and the omic sciences. The genealogical analysis shows how these epistemologies may affect the meaning of "person" and, consequently, the ontology of patients. Additionally, substitutions/confusions of the term PM are related to continuously evolving medical knowledge and new technologies; different etymological roots of "personalization" and "person"; and cultural differences. In conclusion, if the definition of "personalization" in medicine is not clear, patients might get wrong expectations about what is achievable for their health. Therefore, epistemological trends should not be separated as they drive same goals: providing accurate diagnosis and treatments based on large data to predict disease progression.

Keywords: Epistemology; Health care; Person; Personalized medicine.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS). 2013. Realising the Potential of Stratified Medicine. https://acmedsci.ac.uk/viewFile/51e915f9f09fb.pdf . Accessed 1 April 2020.
    1. Ader, Robert, and Nicholas Cohen. 1975. Behaviorally conditioned immunosuppression. Psychosomatic Medicine 37 (4): 333–340. https://doi.org/10.1097/00006842-197507000-00007 . - DOI
    1. Asen, Eia, Dave Tomson, Peter Tomson, and Venetia Young. 2004. Ten Minutes for the Family: Systemic Interventions in Primary Care. London: Routledge. - DOI
    1. Auffray, Charles, Dominique Charron, and Leroy Hood. 2010. Predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory medicine: back to the future. Genome Medicine 2 (57): 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1186/gm178 . - DOI
    1. Bachelard, Gaston. 1934. Le Nouvel Esprit scientifique. Paris: Les Presses Universitaires de France.

LinkOut - more resources