personalized medicine

noun

: a branch of medicine concerned with developing therapies targeted to individuals or particular groups based on their unique genetic, molecular, or phenotypic characteristics : precision medicine

In precision medicine (sometimes called personalized medicine), researchers work to identify the genetic factors that drive or contribute to a disease and build medicines that target the downstream effects of those miscreant genes.

—Melissa Healy

The president referred not to personalized medicine but to "precision medicine," a term given profile by a recent publication from the National Research Council, in which the authors explain that their use of "precision" was intended to avoid the implication that medications would be synthesized personally for single patients.

—Euan A. Ashley

Word History

First Known Use

1994, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

personalized medicine

noun

: a branch of medicine concerned with developing therapies targeted to individuals or particular groups based on their unique genetic, molecular, or phenotypic characteristics : precision medicine

New testing technologies—increasingly based on genomic information—are essential in the shift toward personalized medicine and molecular targeted therapies.

—Kathryn A Phillips, The Journal of the American Medical Association

The scenario illustrates the fundamental idea behind personalized medicine: coupling established clinical-pathological indexes with state-of-the-art molecular profiling to create diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic strategies precisely tailored to each patient's requirements …

—Reza Mirnezami et al., The New England Journal of Medicine