“owner” of one’s own medical information and, in the same time, the “user” of
someone else’s medical information, European Science Foundation ( 2012 ).^28
In such “personalised” public health data collection and integration of personal/
medical information, which can be used also for “tailoring” of health interventions,
one must take into account numerous
- ethical,
- legal and regulatory, and
- organisational issues, European Science Foundation ( 2012 ).^29
In this context and with this approach to any medical information, personalised
medicine could be understood as an addition, asuperstructure to translational
medicine, which is usually defined as research that bi-directionally links laboratory
and hospital (from bench to bedside), Woolf ( 2008 ).^30 This addition could allow for
some basic research to become applicable not only in the diagnosis and treatment
but also in the prevention of a disease!
4.3 New Taxonomy of Health and Disease
Placing the citizen at the core of the data-handling process calls for a new paradigm
in understanding the place and role of the individual within the health care system.
Namely, personalised medicine offers us the idea ofempowering citizens to manage
their own health and disease, European Science Foundation ( 2012 )!^31
This redefines the entire health care system! Namely, personalised medicine
obligates us to recognise the position of individual citizens and the communities
they belong to at the centre of the health careprocess. The accent is placed on the
process, its dynamic, variable component dominates, what is logical, because it
focuses on the individual as the foundation of the society, and society is by its
definition dynamic and changeable, European Science Foundation ( 2012 )!^32
Exactly in theprocess of social changesthere is a window for public health
interventions (Fig. 2 ).
This new concept should combine
- holistic approach to the citizen as a partner in the health care process,
- interdisciplinary approach within medicine and between medicine and related
fields, and
(^28) Ibid., 21.
(^29) Ibid., 21.
(^30) See Woolf ( 2008 ), pp. 3140–3148.
(^31) Ibid., 21.
(^32) Ibid., 21.
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