Participatory Medicine is Revolutionizing Healthcare

Dr. Lee Hood and his colleague Dr. Charles Auffray, of the European Institute for Systems Biology & Medicine, published an editorial in the Dec. 23, 2013, issue of Genome Medicine. An excerpt:

“Healthcare is undergoing a profound revolution as a consequence of three contemporary thrusts: systems medicine, big data and patient involvement in their own health through social networks. This convergence is leading to a medicine that is predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory (P4). The first three Ps, predictive, preventive and personalized, were delineated in the early 2000s, whereas the fourth P, participatory, was added later. To achieve a participatory healthcare system, major technical and societal challenges will need to be overcome, and this will require close integration with systems medicine and big data. Before commenting further on participatory medicine, let us first delineate the essence of systems medicine and big data and their implications for P4 medicine.

To read the full editorial, visit Genome Medicine.