all we can do and who sets the boundaries? Potter ( 1970 ).^18 Also, who will serve as
a “Good Committee”, Jonsen ( 1993 ),^19 in reallocating funds between personalised
medicine need for development of new technologies and public health need to
continue the development and promotion of well-known and historically confirmed
preventive and health-promotional measures?
Exactly the attempt to achieve thebalancemay be the key answer.
4 Personalised MedicineandPublic Health
The only way to achieve the aforementioned balance, guided by the idea of health
equity, is an attempt to make personalised medicine “more public”, i.e. to create a
bridge between ME and WE, by approaching the philosophy of “publicly useful”
personalised medicine (Fig. 1 ).This is how we can really “reclaim biotechnology
for the common good”, Dickenson (2013a).^20
Presented in such manner, personalised medicine can be understood ascomple-
mentary, not competitive to public health, since
- ...it is a customisation of health care that accommodates individual differences
as far as possible at all stages in the process, from prevention, through diagnosis
and treatment, to post-treatment follow-up; - ...it is a proactive, preemptive and preventive approach to the health and well-
being of all citizens; - ...it has implications that extend far beyond the health care profession,
European Science Foundation ( 2012 ).^21
Namely, any effort toredefine our approach to health-careby definition affects
society as a whole, European Science Foundation ( 2012 ).^22
4.1 Redefining the Definition
To achieve an understanding of social changes as a result of personalised medicine,
and in particular to make a shift from techno-pessimistic to techno-optimistic
attitude towards the position of personalised medicine in modern health care and
society, a redefinition of personalised medicine needs to be done. Namely, this is
not just
(^18) See Potter ( 1970 ), pp. 127–153.
(^19) See Jonsen ( 1993 ), pp. S1–S4.
(^20) Ibid., 8.
(^21) See European Science Foundation (ESF) ( 2012 ).
(^22) Ibid.
Personalised Medicine and Public Health 85