Give the ‘one size’ to ‘tailored suitThat is the aim of the new Strategic Plan for Personalized Precision Medicine, with which the Ministry of Health and that it will change the prevention and treatment of numerous diseases in patients distinguished by their genetics, their susceptibility to a pathology or their response to a particular treatment.
The strategy, which they work to see the light of this year 2021 and which will be gradually implanted, affecting patients suffering from rare diseases as well as oncological processes and other hereditary diseases, as explained to Ministry of Health Ical sources.
The planication is based on a new vision of medicine, a paradigm shift that translates into a more precise clinical approach, both in terms of diagnosis and treatment, because by adjusting one patient, it goes back to quality improvement, reduction of adverse effects and more safety.
With these principles, and hand in hand with the “dizzying advancement of technology”, the plan will impact 13 strategic lines, including the development of the service portfolio and resource map; parameters to ensure compliance with standards; implement technology for the diagnosis of genetically determined diseases, At the same time, it plans to include new specialties in the system, such as clinical genetics or bioinformatics.
goals
The goals also go through adherence to ethical standards, dealing with information on a large scale; study of the variability of drug response and aspects related to collaboration, professional coordination and training.
The document will influence the research, as it not only has a plan regarding the integration of new specialists, but also in training strategies, both university and advanced, as well as other research and innovation, both in the diagnostic and therapeutic field, dealing with big data and one of the application of pharmacogenetics.
“Personalized precision medicine draws attention to the individual characteristics of the patient. By combining the advantages of technology with the personalization of care, we can better focus on care and in any case adapt it ”, says the person responsible for care. Regional reference unit for rare diseases of Castilla y León, DiERCyL, María Isidoro García, who is also head of the clinical analysis service of the Salamanca University Assistance Complex.
Reference model
The doctor points out the opportunities that the strategy offers to patients, based on the «New vision developed in Castilla y León in recent years, a pioneer in many areas of genomics or pharmacogenetics, ”he explains.
In fact, he explains, the Personalized Precision Medicine from the Roche Institute in Spain: Community Map‘of 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 reference model at the state level with the potential to be implemented in other autonomous communities ”. In fact, professionals from all over Spain come to the Community to know their model, which has a waiting list of more than three years.
Opportunities
The bottom line is that the system revolves around the patient so that it also seeks to facilitate continuity of care, shorten travel between consultations and response times, adapt clinical and laboratory diagnostic tools to the needs of each case, duplication and Facilitate the creation of multidisciplinary teams with better coordination and communication between specialists in the clinical assessment of patients, adds Isidoro García
Planning starts from the starting point of the expansion and geographic distribution of Castile and Leon for which it provides coordinated networks and makes optimal use of resources. It also takes into account the difficulties posed by the massive technological development – genomics and mass sequencing, biomarker determination, use of large amounts of data, among others – that will force Sacyl to incorporate the latest advancements to provide quality support. In fact, it emphasizes the need for high specialization of professionals, both in the clinical field and in the laboratory.
First steps
Now, Castile and Leon It already has several plans and services on which the new strategy is built and will be expanded. This is the case with the hereditary cancer program, especially breast, ovarian and colon cancer; the CSUR National Reference Unit for Heart Disease in the Family, in Salamanca, which has a high level of specialization, aimed at, among other things, the prevention of sudden death; and the Regional Reference Unit for Advanced Rare Disease Diagnosis, which has treated nearly 2,500 patients across the Community to date, with the identification of more than 50 ultra-rare diseases.
There is also the Non-invasive prenatal diagnosis unit, recently accredited, and the Pharmacogenetics and Precision Medicine Unit, in Salamanca, a pioneer in the application of pharmacogenetic studies to the treatment of polymedication patients; the use of biomarkers for the choice of treatment in certain tumors; and the development of CART-t therapies developed at the Charro hospital for some haematological cancers.
These latest therapies emphasize the characteristics and realities of precision medicine. These are immune cells – T lymphocytes – that are extracted from the patient itself, that are genetically modified, re-administered to the patient, and allow these T lymphocytes to recognize a specific protein, an antigen, from the tumor cells.
“The strategy raises new scenarios related to health care coordination, which could facilitate the access of our patients to the different care structures, as well as the implementation of units that may have greater development needs,” summarizes Isidoro García, for whom it Sacyl plan It collects all the conclusions of the presentation on Medina Genómica de Precisión, which was developed in the Senate in 2019 and on which the national planning is based.The regional strategy collects all aspects of these conclusions and allows us to develop each of the aspects, therefore we will be fully aligned», Sentence.