The understanding of how our genes contribute to the causes of both rare and common diseases is enabling healthcare scientists to develop more bespoke cures that are targeted specifically at individual patient needs. Already, genetic technologies and their capabilities are advancing rapidly.

Contributing trends and developments

A better understanding of the genetic causes of both common and rare diseases, particularly long-term conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer is now becoming prevalent. Genetic screening also becomes widespread to identify the genetic predispositions and health risks for individuals. The level of funding for life-sciences and demand for personalised medicine from service users are also important driving trends.

Potential future situation

Traditional models of care are prone to shifting to help ensure that patients are screened and provided with care plans that are tailored to their genetic make-up and this personalised medicine becomes widespread. The individual responses of patients to treatments assume a central role in prescribing and planning.

Genetic screening and targeted therapies could support prevention and may lead to reduced demand as some conditions are avoided or better managed.

Proposed workforce impact

Some pharmacists may assume more specialised roles, with prescribing becoming more complex. There may also need to be greater collaborative working across healthcare professions to involve the use of pharmacogenomics in epidemiology.

Additional training may be required in the fields of genetic epidemiology, bioinformatics, statistical analysis, high-throughput technologies, genomic data analysis and clinical research for many healthcare professions. However there may be challenges to integrate genomic healthcare into professional education and practice.

Sources or references

http://www.genome.gov/10000016

http://imperialbrc.org/our-research/research-themes/genetics-and-genomic-medicine

www.fgcasal.org/politicalfarmaceutica/docs/jsb_intelligence.pdf

http://www.acmedsci.ac.uk/p149.html

Baron, (2002), Manic-depression genes and the new millennium: poised for discovery, Molecular Psychiatry, 7, 342-358

Pilgrim, (2008), The eugenic legacy in psychology and psychiatry, Int J Soc Psychiatry, 54, 3, 272-293.

Burmeister, (2006), Genetics of psychiatric disorders: a primer. Focus, 4, 3, 317-326.

Sullivan et al., (2012), Genetic architectures of psychiatric disorders: the emerging picture and its implications. Nat Rev Genet, 10, 13, 8, 537-51

Some of the information in this section is provided by stakeholders and expert groups, and does not necessarily represent the views of the CfWI.