Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of Incorporating Personalized Medicine into Healthcare

TLDR

Over the past decade, bioethics scholars have examined the ethical, legal, and social implications of personalized medicine, and as it moves into clinical settings, the focus must broaden in the coming decade. The study aims to examine two emerging issues that will become increasingly important. The authors analyze the consequences of the massive increase in health information from personalized medicine and raise concerns that it may exacerbate existing healthcare disparities.

Abstract

As research focused on personalized medicine has developed over the past decade, bioethics scholars have contemplated the ethical, legal and social implications of this type of research. In the next decade, there will be a need to broaden the focus of this work as personalized medicine moves into clinical settings. We consider two broad issues that will grow in importance and urgency. First, we analyze the consequences of the significant increase in health information that will be brought about by personalized medicine. Second, we raise concerns about the potential of personalized medicine to exacerbate existing disparities in healthcare.