Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Personalized Medicine: Conceptual, Ethical, and Empirical Challenges

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Handbook of the Philosophy of Medicine

  • 553 Accesses

Abstract

The development of so-called personalized medicine (PM) has raised great hopes and expectations among researchers, patients, health-care providers, and politicians. This chapter explores firstly the terminology and conceptual premises of PM. In the second stage, there will be a brief review of the state of the art of PM and medical-technical challenges associated with this approach to medicine. The subsequent normative analysis will focus on two topics which have been given particular consideration in the philosophical and ethical debate around PM: (1) the relation between PM, autonomy, and responsibility of the individual and (2) the setting of priorities in light of the PM approach to research and practice.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Beauchamp T, Childress J (2012) Principles of biomedical ethics, 7th edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Browman G, Hébert PC, Coutts J (2011) Personalized medicine: a windfall for science, but what about patients? Can Med Assoc J 183:E1277

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Browmann G, Virani A, Vollmann J et al (2014) Improving the quality of ‘personalized medicine’ research and practice: through an ethical lens. Pers Med 11:413–423

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (2011) Bürgerreport: Hightech-Medizin – Welche Gesundheit wollen wir? Bürger-Dialog. Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (2013) Aktionsplan Individualisierte Medizin Ein neuer Weg in Forschung und Gesundheitsversorgung. http://www.gesundheitsforschung-bmbf.de/_media/BMBF_MASTER_Aktionsplan_IndiMed.pdf

  • Collins FS (2010) The language of life. DNA and the revolution in personalized medicine. HarperCollins, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Dabrock P, Braun M, Ried J (2012) Individualisierte Medizin: Ethische und gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen. Forum 27:209–213

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • European Commission (2013) Use of “-omics” technologies in the development of personalised medicine. http://ec.europa.eu/health/files/latest_news/2013-10_personalised_medicine_en.pdf. Accessed 26 June 2015

  • Fischer T, Dörr M, Haring R et al (2015) Alarming symptoms of a paradigm shift? An approach to bridge the gap between hypothetical ethics and the current status of individualised medicine research. In: Vollmann J, Sandow V, Wäscher S, Schildmann J (eds) The ethics of personalised medicine: critical perspectives. Ashgate, Farnham, pp 25–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Hessling A, Schicktanz S (2012) What German experts expect from individualized medicine: problems of uncertainty and future complication in physician-patient interaction. Clin Ethics 7:86–93

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hüsing B (2010) Individualisierte Medizin – Potenziale und Handlungsbedarf. Z Evid Fortbild Qual Gesundhwes 104:727–731

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kerr A, Cunningham-Burley S (2000) On ambivalence and risk: reflexive modernity and the new human genetics. Sociology 34:283–304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kohnen T, Schildmann J, Vollmann J (2013) Patients’ self-determination in “personalized medicine”: the case of whole genome sequencing and tissue banking in oncology. In: Braun M, Dabrock P (eds) “Individualised Medicine” between hype und hope. LIT, Münster, pp 97–110

    Google Scholar 

  • Kollek R, Lemke T (eds) (2008) Der medizinische Blick in die Zukunft. Gesellschaftliche Implikationen prädiktiver Gentests. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt a. M

    Google Scholar 

  • Lampe E-J (1998) Persönlichkeit, Persönlichkeitssphäre, Persönlichkeitsrecht. In: Lampe E-J (ed) Persönlichkeit, Familie, Eigentum: Grundrechte aus der Sicht der Sozial- und Verhaltenswissenschaften. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen, pp 73–102

    Google Scholar 

  • Langanke M, Lieb W, Erdmann P et al (2012) Was ist Individualisierte Medizin? Zur terminologischen Justierung eines schillernden Begriffs. ZME 58:295–314

    Google Scholar 

  • Langanke M, Fischer T, Erdmann P et al (2013) Gesundheitliche Eigenverantwortung im Kontext Individualisierter Medizin. Ethik Med 25:243–250

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ludwig W-D (2012) Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der stratifizierenden Medizin am Beispiel von prädiktiven Biomarkern und “zielgerichteten” medikamentösen Therapien in der Onkologie. Z Evid Fortbild Qual Gesundhwes 122:11–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rauprich O (2010) Rationierung unter den Bedingungen der Endlichkeit im Gesundheitswesen. In: Thomas G, Höfner M, Schaede S (eds) Endliches Leben Interdisziplinäre Zugänge zum Phänomen der Krankheit. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, pp 229–256

    Google Scholar 

  • Rohr M, Schade D (2000) Selbstbestimmung und Eigenverantwortung im Gesundheitswesen – Ergebnisse des Workshops zu Forschungsbedarf im Bereich Medizin und Gesundheit, Arbeitsbericht Nr. 176. Akademie für Technikfolgenabschätzung in Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart

    Google Scholar 

  • Schildmann J (2015) ‘Personalised medicine’: multidisciplinary perspectives and in ‘interdisciplinary recommendations on a framework for future research and practice’. In: Vollmann J, Sandow V, Wäscher S, Schildmann J et al (eds) The ethics of personalised medicine: critical perspectives. Ashgate Publishing, Farnham

    Google Scholar 

  • Schleidgen S, Klinger C, Bertram T et al (2013) What is personalized medicine: sharpening a vague term based on a systematic literature review. BMC Med Ethics 14:55. doi:10.1186/1472-6939-14-55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schulze M (2011) Programme of the international symposium: predictive genetic testing, risk communication and risk perception: Value of genetic. Information for diabetes risk prediction. Robert Koch Institut, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Siegmund-Schultze N (2011) Versorgung von Krebspatienten: Menschliche Zuwendung aufwerten. Dtsch Arztebl 108:A-932

    Google Scholar 

  • Sleijfer S, Bogaerts J, Siu LL (2013) Designing transformative clinical trials in the cancer genome era. J Clin Oncol 31:1834–1841

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strech D, Tilburt J (2008) Value judgments in the analysis and synthesis of evidence. J Clin Epidemiol 61:521–524

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vollmann J (2008) Patientenselbstbestimmung und Selbstbestimmungsfähigkeit: Beiträge zur klinischen Ethik. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart

    Google Scholar 

  • Vollmann J (2013) Persönlicher – besser – kostengünstiger? Kritische medizinethische Anfragen an die “personalisierte Medizin”. Ethik in der Medizin 25:233–241. Parts of this publication form part of this article. With kind permission of Springer Science+Business Media

    Google Scholar 

  • Wabel T (2015) Patient as person in personalised medicine. Autonomy, responsibility and the body. In: Vollmann J, Sandow V, Wäscher S, Schildmann J (eds) The ethics of personalised medicine: critical perspectives. Ashgate, Farnham, pp 53–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Wäscher S, Schildmann J, Brall C et al (2013) Personalisierte Medizin in der Onkologie. Erste Ergebnisse einer qualitativen Interviewstudie zu Wahrnehmungen und Bewertungen onkologisch tätiger Ärzte. Ethik Med 25:205–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yurkiewicz S (2010) The prospects for personalized medicine. Hastings Cent Rep 40:14–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Malakowturm-Markstraße 258a, 44799, Bochum, Germany

    Jan Schildmann & Jochen Vollmann

Authors
  1. Jan Schildmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jochen Vollmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jan Schildmann .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Philosophisches Seminar, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Thomas Schramme

  2. Philosophy, History and Law, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom

    Steven Edwards

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this entry

Cite this entry

Schildmann, J., Vollmann, J. (2015). Personalized Medicine: Conceptual, Ethical, and Empirical Challenges. In: Schramme, T., Edwards, S. (eds) Handbook of the Philosophy of Medicine. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8706-2_71-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8706-2_71-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-8706-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation