go “One size” to “custom suit”‘. This is the goal of the new strategic plan for personalized precision medicine, which is already complementing Ministry of Health and that this will mean a change in the prevention and treatment of many diseases in patients who are distinguished by genetics, their susceptibility to suffering a pathology or their response to a particular treatment.
strategy, in which it is working to see the light this year 2021 and which will be progressively implanted, will affect both patients suffering from rare diseases and oncological processes and other hereditary diseases, as explained by Ical sources of the Ministry of Health.
The planication is based on a new vision of medicine, a paradigm shift that translates into a more precise clinical approach, both in diagnosis and treatment, because, by adjusting a single patient, it will return to improving quality, reducing side effects and advancing safety.
With these premises, and hand in hand with the “breakthrough of technology”, the plan will affect 13 strategic lines that include the development of the service portfolio and resource map; parameters to ensure compliance with standards; implementation of technology for the diagnosis of genetic diseases, At the same time, it intends to incorporate new specialties into the system, such as clinical genetics or bioinformatics.
purposes
The objectives also go beyond compliance with ethical standards, the treatment of information on a large scale; studies of variability in drug response and issues related to cooperation, professional coordination and training.
The document will influence research, as, in addition to having a plan for the incorporation of new specialists, it delves into training strategies, both university and continuing, as well as other research and innovations in both the diagnostic and therapeutic fields, the manipulation of big data and the application of pharmacogenetics.
“Personalized precision medicine focuses on the individual characteristics of the patient. The combination of the advantages of technology with the personalization of care allows a better focus on healthcare and its adaptation in each case “, the person in charge Regional reference unit for rare diseases in Castilla y León, DiERCyL, María Isidoro García, who is also the head of the Clinical Analysis Service of the Salamanca University Assistance Complex.
Reference model
The physician emphasizes the opportunities that the strategy offers patients, based on «A new vision that developed in Castilla y León in recent years, he has been a pioneer in many fields in the field of genomics or pharmacogenetics “, he states.
In fact, he explains, that Roche Institute ‘Personalized Precision Medicine in Spain: Map of Communities‘from 2019, places Castilla y León among the most developed communities, along with Andalusia, Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country and concludes that “the methodology defined for the application of personalized precision medicine in Castilla y León is considered a state reference model with the potential to be implemented in other autonomous communities ”. In fact, professionals from all over Spain come to the Community to find out about their model, for which there is more than three years on the waiting list.
timely
The point is that the system revolves around the patient, so that it also tries to facilitate the continuity of care, to reduce the travel between different consultations and response times, to adjust the clinical and laboratory diagnostic resources to the needs of each case, to avoid duplication and facilitates the creation of multidisciplinary teams with greater coordination and communication between specialists in the clinical evaluation of patients, adds Isidoro García.
Planning starts from the premise of geographical expansion and dispersion a Castile and Leon for which it provides coordinated networks and makes the most of resources. It also takes into account the difficulties posed by the enormous technological development – genomics and mass sequencing, the determination of biomarkers, the use of large volumes of data, among others – which will force Sacyl to incorporate the latest advances to provide quality assistance. In fact, it emphasizes the need for high specialization from professionals, both in the clinical field and in the laboratory.
The first steps
Right now, Castile and Leon It already has several plans and services on which the new strategy has been built and which will be expanded. This is the case with the hereditary cancer program, especially in the case of breast, ovarian and colon cancer; CSUR National Reference Unit for Family Heart Disease, in Salamanca, which has a high level of specialization focused, among other things, on the prevention of sudden death; and the Regional Reference Unit for the Advanced Diagnosis of Rare Diseases, which has so far treated almost 2,500 patients throughout the Community, with the identification of over 50 ultra-rare diseases.
There is also Non-invasive prenatal diagnostic unit, recently accredited, and the Pharmacogenetics and Precision Medicine Unit, in Salamanca, a pioneer in the application of pharmacogenetic studies in the treatment of polymedicated patients; the use of biomarkers for the choice of treatment in certain tumors; and the development of CART-t therapies developed in the charro hospital for some types of hematological cancer.
These latest therapies highlight the characteristics and reality of precision medicine. These are immune cells – T lymphocytes – extracted from the patient himself, which are genetically modified, re-administered to the patient and allow these T lymphocytes to recognize a specific protein, an antigen, of tumor cells.
“The strategy raises new scenarios related to healthcare coordination, which can facilitate our patients’ access to different healthcare structures, as well as the implementation of units that may have a greater need for development,” sums up Isidoro García, for whom the Sacyl Plan collects all the conclusions of the presentation on Medina Precision Genomics, which was developed in the Senate in 2019 and on which national planning is based. «The regional strategy collects all aspects of these conclusions and positions us in order to be able to develop each of the aspects, therefore we will be fully aligned», Sentence.