Personalized medicine in the historical context
Personalized medicine in the historical context

Summary/Abstract: Nowadays everyone talks about „personalized medicine,“ but few agree on what it actually means – disease-tailored medicine, gene-based therapy, atomic healthcare? Heated debates detract from the notion that human health is a coin with two sides – physical (with manifestations that can be detected, monitored and treated through medicine) and mental (with emotion-driven behavior that cannot be easily detected, understood or corrected through hard science). Historically, catering for both has proven a challenge when access to medical treatment has long been a privilege of the few who could afford it. First the European Enlightenment (18th – 19th c) and then the post-World War II human rights movements brought a much sought after change. The importance of the mental processes in human health, as well as the ethics of a more universal healthcare entered the discussion. Following the new trends in medical care provision however led to a serious problem. Due to physicians’ mounting daily workload, now patients feel increasingly objectified; their suffering considered normal for the clinical picture it corresponds to. Yet, in a post-Fordist era, each patient wants to feel valued – „singled out“ and treated as special. Perhaps the time has come for physicians to be more considerate and aim at customer satisfaction rather than the highly specialized service they provide on one side and the pronounced lack of alternative on the other.

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