Under the 'scope...

Came across this link today. Wonderful positive spin on the way personalized medicine is moving forward. We will all have access to treatments designed for us, the individual. Our genes will dictate our doctors therapeutic response. As a result we will all get the best treatments possible and we will avoid the nasty side effects that we may otherwise have to endure. Or will we?

The other way of looking at this, which of course doesn't work quite so well as a sales pitch, is that these tests will also be used to judge which medicines we can't have. Economic considerations are never far away from politicians minds when deciding which drugs / treatments should be made available.

What happens if tests indicate that you are unlikely to "respond well" to a drug? What then if there are few, if any, alternatives. Who puts a price on what is and what is not acceptable in the face of life threatening illness?

Still, they tell us that personalised medicine is the way forward. Pity all we get is a positive spin. Pity no-one looks a little closer and consider all the implications. That's not how advertising works though is it?

The image: a brass microscope with dessicated leaf on the stage - shot through a paper snoot. I just wanted to see if it would work.