Personalized_Medicine_A_New_Medical_and_Social_Challenge

5 Conclusion

Adequate understanding and defining of personalised medicine can help change its
current paradigm, i.e. personalised medicine that is viewed as a major threat to the
very essence of public health philosophy and activity. This allows us to look at the
definition of health adopted so many decades ago in a new light, respecting
tradition, wisely welcoming innovation and recalling that in the middle of deliber-
ation of personalised, social, public and any other kind of medicine stands a human
being!
Personalised medicine, thus, has the potential to embrace a trulypro-active,pre-
emptive, participativeandpreventiveapproach to the health and wellbeing ofall
citizens, ESF ( 2012 ).^51

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the

absence of disease or infirmity, WHO ( 1946 ).^52

References

Callahan D (2002) Ethics and public health: forging a strong relationship. Am J Public Health
2:169–176
Cesuroglu T, van Ommen B, Malats N et al (2012) Public health perspective: from personalized
medicine to personal health. Pers Med 9(2):115–119
Dickenson DL (2013a) ME medicine vs. WE medicine: reclaiming technology for the common
good. Columbia University Press, New York

PUBLIC

HEALTH

PERSONALISED

MEDICINE

PARTICIPATORY HEALTH COMMUNITY

PERSONALISED PREVENTIVE MEDICINE

Fig. 3The future of public health

(^51) Ibid., 21.
(^52) See WHO ( 1946 ).
Personalised Medicine and Public Health 91