Personalized medicine could speed the time to diagnosis for someone with a rare disease as well as help diagnose and treat people with cancer, Vice writes.
It writes that there are more and more studies examining personalized medicine's applicability in the clinic, but that there are still hurdles to its wider adoption, including skeptical insurance companies. However, it reports that researchers with the Personalized Medicine Coalition have been studying whether the basing the treatment of children with rare disorders on their genome sequencing results is cost-effective. Vice notes the study is not yet out but that Edward Abraham, the founder of the advocacy group, thinks the results will point toward cost-effectiveness.
"One of the things we're doing is trying to demonstrate that there is not only clinical utility for the patient, but it also saves the health system and the payer a lot of money," he tells Vice.
Additionally, Vice says the PMC is also seeking coverage for such testing by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the passage of the CURES 2.0 Act, which includes a pilot program to test personalized medicine approaches.