This Saturday, the Roche Institute Foundation addresses the training of high school students in the Conference, “Personalized Precision Medicine: Medicine of the Present or the Future?”, within the framework of the 1st edition in Madrid of the Youth for the Future program. Medicine organized by the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera in collaboration with hospitals, whose objective is to bring students closer to the work of a hospital from care to research.
During the day, high school students interested in careers related to medicine and the field of health will have the opportunity to get closer, with the help of great experts, to the concept of Personalized Precision Medicine and its application in the clinic, learn about the concept of pharmacogenomics as an example of the application of this new way of doing medicine and the role that Artificial Intelligence has as a tool for its implementation.
In the words of the managing director of the Roche Institute Foundation, Consuelo Martín de Dios“the conference seeks to stimulate interest in Personalized Precision Medicine among future health professionals, bringing the concept closer to students in a practical and simple way, and focusing on the benefits of this new way of doing medicine, both in health care as well as research.
As explained by the Head of the Human Genotyping Unit- CeGen of the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), Dr. Anna González-NeiraPersonalized Precision Medicine is a more advanced and precise way of practicing medicine, adapting it to each person, “where instead of treating all patients in the same way, medical care and treatment is personalized according to their unique characteristics.” of each individual.”
The expert emphasizes that this personalization provides patients with individualized medical treatment, a more effective and less toxic treatment, thus improving the quality of life and the health of society in general. “It’s like a tailored suit instead of a mass-produced one,” says Dr. González-Neira.
The celebration of the day represents the final chapter of the set of theoretical-practical sessions that the high school students of this 1st edition of the “Young People for Medicine” Program in Madrid have had the opportunity to enjoy, from January to May 2024, discovering the functioning of different medical specialties like in a hospital, from care to research. During the sessions they were able to learn how to work in different services at the La Paz University Hospital and the Puerta de Hierro University Hospital: pediatrics, cardiology, internal medicine or emergencies, among others.
Lluís Farrés, head of Science, Education and Research at the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera highlights that: “At Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera we are very satisfied to have offered for the first time the Youth for Medicine program to high school students in the Community of Madrid, with a vocation for careers related to health and Medicine. The program has been running with great success for 3 years in Catalonia, in collaboration with the main hospitals of Barcelona, and now, together with the La Paz and Puerta de Hierro University Hospitals and the Roche Institute Foundation, we have been able to offer it to these first 44 students who during the sessions have been able to meet “up close how to work in a hospital, get closer to the medical professions, maintain close contact with leading professionals and learn about the reality and challenges of different medical specialties, thus helping to guide their academic and professional future.”
Train in Personalized Precision Medicine
Personalized Precision Medicine represents a paradigm shift and a new healthcare reality for the health system, with training being a fundamental tool to contribute to its full implementation and application in clinical practice.
Dr. González-Neira defends that educating about this innovative approach will allow us to build a new generation of professionals who are not only familiar with this field, “but also support it and incorporate it into their clinical practice.” Furthermore, as the expert assures, this training reinforcement will promote the ability to make informed decisions about one’s own health, “laying the foundations for a healthier society that is aware of the importance of personalized medical care.”
Pharmacogenomics or pharmacogenetics is a clear example of the benefits of Personalized Precision Medicine in patients, as explained by the responsible for the Pharmacogenetics Laboratory of the Gregorio Marañón University Hospital, Dr. Luis López Fernández. As the expert reports, people respond differently to drugs, “a dose of a medication may be effective in one patient while in another it may not be ideal to achieve maximum therapeutic benefit and may even cause adverse reactions.” ”.
Pharmacogenomics, according to the specialist, “analyzes the possible relationship between genetic variability and the response to drugs in order to provide the necessary information for the identification of an individualized pharmacological treatment based on the genetic profile of each patient.”
According to Dr. López, Spain is a leading country in the implementation of pharmacogenomics. For this reason, he emphasizes the importance of training expert professionals in this discipline. “We all have pharmacogenomic variants that can be useful to us throughout our lives. We take drugs from birth and therefore we must know that we may not respond to a medication and why. Patients, being informed about health issues and Personalized Precision Medicine, become more involved in making decisions and deciding about their treatment,” he explains.
Artificial Intelligence, an ally in clinical decision making
Artificial Intelligence is a tool to promote the incorporation of Personalized Precision Medicine in clinical practice and will be of great support for decision-making by health professionals. This is pointed out by the head of the Bioinformatics Unit of the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), Dr. Fátima Al-Shahrourwho states that various areas of medicine are undergoing a great transformation as a result of the application of Artificial Intelligence and highlights its “significant impact in areas such as the interpretation of medical images and support for clinical decision-making.”
The head of the CNIO Bioinformatics Unit argues that this impact is currently reflected in the healthcare environment, “since the National Health System aims to establish interoperable national digital health ecosystems, as well as reinforce coordinated collaboration, promoting the use of Big Data and AI under the appropriate ethical and regulatory principles that will be a definitive boost for Personalized Precision Medicine.”
Given its role in the development of the healthcare of the future, Dr. Al-Shahrour considers that training in Artificial Intelligence from the school stage can be very beneficial for the future application of this technology in multiple fields and not only in clinical practice. . “There is no doubt that learning about new technologies related to AI can foster curiosity, innovation and the development of technical skills such as programming; as well as to address the associated ethical and social challenges,” she concludes.
Fountain: BERBES
