Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag

30.03.2009 | Expert hearing:

Individualised medicine and the health system

Results of the TAB Future report will be presented and discussed at a public event in the German Bundestag

Individualised medicine could significantly shape the health care system in 15 to 20 years time and could penetrate all the stages of health service provision -- from prevention to (early) diagnostics to therapy and aftertreatment monitoring. It has the potential to achieve ambitious goals in terms of quality and cost of public health care by providing medical services that are more specifically adapted to an individual.

On behalf of the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (TAB) has - for the first time ever - examined all the relevant scientific-technological lines of development in an integrated perspective. Insights and technologies from genome research, tissue engineering, stem cell research, and nanomedicine are examined with a view on their potential an challenges for an individualised medicine. Because in these fields there are only limited developments close to practical applications today, the contours of such a type of medicine their possibilities and limitations remain partly blurred. However it is important from a societal and political perspective to address the question at an early stage if and how products and procedures of individualised medicine could be integrated in the public health care system.

The Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (TAB), being a scientific consulting body of the German Bundestag, has carried out this investigation. The results will be presented to Parliament and the general public and discussed on May 27th 14:30 to 17:00 hours in a professional discussion open to the public under the auspices of the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment.