Impact of Personalized Medicine on Treatment Decisions

“We evaluate personalized medicine regimes that include lab testing, a scoring system, and other factors associated with the patient,” according to Edmund Pezalla, MD, MPH.

Pezalla explained that personalized medicine is evaluated based on whether the treatments have demonstrated better outcomes or if it is clear that they will alter clinical decisions. He emphasized that just an add-on test is of no value, so diagnostics that expect clinical integration should impact outcomes.

“Companion diagnostics are enormous in this area because they help make a choice for or against a drug and using it to choose a particular pathway. [These diagnostics] measure something that can be acted on,” Pezalla said.