1 Introduction
Contemporary medicine faces new challenges. The health care environment
becomes more complex. The scientific-technological progress on one hand and
limited material resources on the other create new categories for the physician–
patient relationship, Sorta-Bilajac ( 2012 ).^1 There is an emerging need for a redef-
inition of this relationship and reallocation of responsibilities within the health care
system, but in the context of the entire society.
One of the “eternal” questions—is medicine art or science? Is it a humanistic
enterprise with a scientific component or a scientific enterprise with a humanistic
component?—in the context of personalised medicine becomes even more prom-
inent. Precisely today more than ever, the goals of medicine, as set by the Hastings
Center two decades ago, need to be re-evaluated, taking into account that each firm
vision of the goals of medicine includes the art of a humane evaluation in the face of
uncertainty, a core of humanistic and moral values and results of a caring (and
careful) science. A medicine that simultaneously strives to be honourable, bal-
anced, accessible and unbiased must constantly reflect on its goals, Hastings
Center ( 1996 ).^2
A long-standing paradigm that sufficient knowledge of medical sciences is an
adequate guarantee that the final decision on what is medically indicated would be
accurate, Veatch ( 1996 ),^3 also needs to be challenged. Namely, since each medical
decision includes a medical-technical, a moral and a social/economical component,
medical competency is no longer the only competency needed for making medi-
cally sound decisions, Frkovic ́( 2006 ),^4 Pellegrino et al. ( 1990 ).^5 Personalised
medicine points out exactly to the need for an interdisciplinary approach, even
more underlined when placed in relation to public health.
The relationship between personalised medicine and public health can be
observed from three different standpoints, offering a framework for deliberation
on the individual vs. social, i.e. personal/private vs. public, as follows:
- personalised medicineinpublic health,
- personalised medicinevs.public health,
- personalised medicineandpublic health.
(^1) See Sorta-Bilajac ( 2012 ).
(^2) See Hastings Center ( 1996 ), pp. S1–S27.
(^3) See Veatch ( 1996 ), pp. 579–585.
(^4) See Frkovic ́( 2006 ).
(^5) See Pellegrino et al. ( 1990 ), pp. 175–180.
82 V. Mic ́ovic ́et al.