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Keeping it personal – the tailored approach to patient care

Posted on 22 September 2015

The University of York is to collaborate with two other European institutions to investigate the clinical and economic challenges of personalised medicine.

The team from the Centre for Health Economics (CHE) at York will work with researchers from the University of Twente in the Netherlands and the Luxembourg Institute of Health in a £1.2 million project over four years.

Researchers say the ‘one-size fits all’ approach to medical treatment is outdated and a more tailored approach is required with the patient at the heart of the decision-making process.

The main clinical areas of research will be in oncology, followed by diabetes, cardio-vascular and rheumatic diseases.  

The team from York will focus on developing clinical and economic models to determine which treatment is the most cost effective for different individuals. It will also involve collecting and analysing data from patients undergoing treatments, assessing the value of diagnostics and eliciting preferences for different types of healthcare services.

Professor Andrea Manca, from CHE, said the research could help shape future health policies.

He said:  “At the moment a lot of clinical research is focused on delivering the best outcomes for the ‘average’ patient. We know that, not only are most people different from the ‘average’, but these differences are often key determinants for the success or failure of medical treatment.

 “The focus of the research is to find out why two individuals with exactly the same characteristics can respond differently to the same treatment. We aim  to explore those differences and tailor healthcare research and delivery of medical care.” 

The project will be led by Professor Andrea Manca (York), Professor Maarten IJzerman (Twente) and Professor Ngianga-Bakwin Kandala (Luxembourg Institute of Health).

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