Cystic Sequencing: A Case Study

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Health care today is faced with the dilemma of balancing effective treatment with the rising costs of extended care. Often care is generalized to the diagnosis, with treatments not meeting the specific needs of the individual patient. With rapidly advancing technologies, focused treatments can be brought closer to reality than ever before. Personalized medicine previously deemed unreasonable can now be considered as a preferred option. Personalized medicine uses an individual's genetic profile to guide decisions in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. Utilizing personalized medicine will allow for precise treatment plans for the individual, rather than treating a general diagnosis. This should increase success of treatment, therefore decreasing the length of care and …show more content…
Physicians can use DNA sequencing to guide treatment. This treatment will be patient-specific and may help to reduce side effects and length of care. The diagnosis and treatment of cystic fibrosis, for example, can be improved by genome sequencing. Physicians have targeted 139 gene mutations involved in cystic fibrosis, which has helped to increase diagnoses with more accuracy and less cost. Genome sequencing has provided an awareness of DNA mutations which give rise to cancerous tumors. This allows for more guided treatments of the tumor. Knowing patients’ genomes will allow biomedical researchers to expand their understanding of how DNA variants influence disease risk. This knowledge will assist surgeons and other medical providers in diagnosis and treatment. There is still much research required in this field due to the vast amount of information yet to be discovered, but this field holds great promise in changing the face of medicine. As a future medical provider, this will assist me in administering proper and thorough care, individualized to the patient’s