The lack of health data is cited as a barrier to precision medicine

In the report – a follow-up to a report produced by Roche and Arthur D. Little in 2020 – Cancer companies Leaf and Nolvision concluded that progress is being made with the introduction of so-called precision medicine.

“Precision medicine is no longer viewed as something that will happen in the future, but rather as something that is happening now — motivations and expectations for rapid and successful implementation of precision medicine are higher than they were in 2020,” the report authors wrote.

The establishment of precision medicine centers in more and more regions is an important advance.

Others highlighted are approaches that enable secondary use of patient data – for example, basic legal requirements are being investigated – and increased use of whole genome sequencing and digitization of diagnostics.

Regarding the latter, the report notes, among other things, that AI-based image analysis is becoming increasingly popular, especially in breast cancer diagnosis.

At the same time, there are still a number of obstacles preventing its widespread introduction. One of the biggest of these problems is specifically the lack of access to health data. According to the report, it is necessary to facilitate the secondary use of data collected from patients, whether for patient treatment or for research and development.

Another problem is that genetic testing is still not available to all patients who might benefit from it – although sequencing is available at all university hospitals and some regional hospitals.

The report also points to a lack of efficiency in health care. Both now and in the future, proficiency in, among others, computer science, bioinformatics, and biostatistics is needed in order to use precision medicine effectively.

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