Perspectives on personalized medicine in Colombia more content

The model for ensuring sustainability and effectiveness in the health system of many countries in Latin America is ‘ad porte’ of a revolution: personalized medicine.

Thanks to innovation and a series of technological advances, the care that each patient received has transcended into better prevention and treatment plans individually, without any precedent.

This vision of health, already rooted in countries such as the United States and Spain, is a hybrid between science and technology with the use of tools such as ‘big data’ and Artificial Intelligence, which allows to generate timely, more specific diagnosis and more accurate treatment for the patient.

To date, the greatest progress has been evident in oncology and in cases of communicable diseases afflicting mankind since memorable times such as tuberculosis. However, in Colombia the implementation of this type of medicine is a challenge from different sectors.

Precisely to understand this challenge, on July 15 the first virtual meeting ‘Personalized Medicine: a real work plan for Colombia’ was held, where a debate was opened from the medical, academic, technological and governance perspective .

The first virtual discussion and analysis space, which had the support of Roche Colombia, brought together several national experts in medicine, ICT, government and education. The international participation was in charge of Dr. Arturo Loaiza, vice president of the Department of Medical Oncology at the Cancer Treatment Center of America, who contextualized on the advancement of personalized medicine and his vision for the arrival of this trend in the country.

In this regard, the specialist explained that the future of this innovation begins with the implementation of data: “we are looking for opportunities to create algorithms and data analysis. We try to use it for clinical studies, development of new drugs “We try to use the benefits of a totalized health system, a large medical staff and infrastructure to make a difference in the future of personalized medicine in Colombia,” he said.

In the same vein, Loaiza stated that an important opportunity is foreseen for Colombia to be a center of excellence in technical studies. “There are patients and there is a lot of capital that can be invested in the country to do these kinds of interventions. Using data can help a lot,” said the vice president of the Department of Medical Oncology at the Cancer Treatment Center of America.

However, among the challenges of integrating personalized medicine into the national health system, the expert mentioned providing navigation services to patients, documenting metrics, and tracking treatment maneuvers that are appropriate.

Also, in his opinion, the doctor explained that it is necessary to offer patients timely medical care 24 hours a day, seven days a week through web platforms, guarantee the appropriate access to clinics and make metrics to see quality and efficiency systems. .

In the middle of the debate, the surgeon Gabriel Riveros explained that personalized medicine is not a purely medical-scientific issue, “it has to do with other aspects, such as governance, education, the possibility for doctors to know the “The benefits of this approach, the appropriate infrastructure and the financial elements that allow this to work. This integrity is a fantastic opportunity to open the doors to personalized medicine in a bigger way.”

Riveros added during his speech that among the first steps towards this modality is the fact of “making sure that the concept of a personalized medicine transcends the education of doctors”.

Precisely, it is important to assess the extent to which the country has the potential to apply this model. According to Dr. Carlos Palacio, dean of the medical program at the University of Antioquia, there must be sufficient infrastructure and capacity to implement it. “Very few universities are working on this model.” There must be an articulation in the health system, which allows for tasks such as primary and secondary prevention; and diagnosis, in conjunction with analytics.

In turn, Liana Camargo, Roche’s Therapeutic Area Strategy Leader, recalled the company’s mission to implement solutions that really make sense for the needs that exist as a country in terms of health.

“Today, the sector is being transformed into a different way of caring for patients, based on a huge amount of data that we need to make appropriate and relevant use. As well as using analytical tools that allow us to improve the care in each of the pathologies and make the time of care more efficient with the use of the data “, stated Camargo.

In this regard, he urged the various stakeholders and other social actors to unite to “build a new development of industry and the health sector as an integral factor in the mobilization of economic sectors in the country.” Beyond the pharmaceutical perspective, also from the digital transformation in medical services.

Finally, the first virtual meeting ‘Personalized Medicine: a real work plan for Colombia’ marked the beginning of the construction of the first decalogue of implementation of this model in the country, in which evidence will be presented on the benefits in patients to try to put on the public agenda a conversation around personalized medicine and its contribution to sustainability in the health system.

This material was built by the Portfolio editorial team with support from Productes Roche SA It is aimed at the general public.