Precise medicine is the final goal of health care, experts say

Precise medicine is the target for medical development and covers the whole process from diagnosis, treatment and prevention. The final goal is to achieve precise health, experts told the International Forum on Innovation and Emerging Industries Development launched in Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s School of Medicine.

Experts from home and abroad discussed the new theory and technology on biological science, big data and medical use of artificial intelligence, cancer immunology and genetics and molecular biology in an effort to boost the adoption and communication of cutting-edge technologies in the health and pharmaceutical field.

Pirjo Nuutila from University of Turku in Finland said Finnish government started to establish database 10 years ago through collecting information of genome, which is responsible for 40 percent of a person' health, digital medical record from hospitals and pharmacies and personal health data including public sports and diet habit. All information in the database is used for health care and to achieve precise medicine.

Katrin Rupalla from Bristol-Myers Squibb said drug development should target different spectrum of diseases in different regions.

For instance, the incidence of nasopharynx cancer in southern China is higher than the northern regions. Pharmaceutical companies can develop drugs in line with different regions. Different spectrum of diseases can indicate different diseases in local population and allows companies to do more targeted research and development, he said.