Can Personalized Medicine Coexist with Health Equity? Examining the Cost Barrier and Ethical Implications

TL;DR

This paper examines the ethical and financial challenges of personalized medicine, emphasizing the risk of increased health disparities and proposing strategies for equitable global implementation.

Contribution

It highlights the potential for personalized medicine to widen health disparities and proposes collaborative, infrastructural, and ethical solutions for equitable access in LMICs.

Findings

Personalized medicine's high costs threaten health equity.

Global collaboration can mitigate disparities in PM access.

Ethical frameworks are essential for equitable PM implementation.

Abstract

Personalized medicine (PM) promises to transform healthcare by providing treatments tailored to individual genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. However, its high costs and infrastructure demands raise concerns about exacerbating health disparities, especially between high-income countries (HICs) and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). While HICs benefit from advanced PM applications through AI and genomics, LMICs often lack the resources necessary to adopt these innovations, leading to a widening healthcare divide. This paper explores the financial and ethical challenges of PM implementation, with a focus on ensuring equitable access. It proposes strategies for global collaboration, infrastructure development, and ethical frameworks to support LMICs in adopting PM, aiming to prevent further disparities in healthcare accessibility and outcomes.