Personalised medicine (PM) holds great promise to improve individualised treatments and provide targeted disease prevention. The Health Research Board (HRB) will bring together key audiences for its National Conference in Dublin on 30 November to explore the opportunities and discuss potential challenges in terms of making personalised medicine a reality in Ireland.

According to Dr Mairéad O Driscoll, Chief Executive at the HRB:

“Personalised medicine means a shift from a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to disease diagnosis and treatment to one tailored for individual needs. Research is central to making this happen. But to really progress, we must work in collaboration with health professionals, the public, patients, industry and other government departments to discuss the challenges and offer solutions for progress.

“We hope this conference will provide a springboard to bring these perspectives together to create a vision for what personalised medicine can deliver for Ireland.”

Different perspectives

Patient and citizens’ understanding and trust are critical for patient engagement in personalised medicine. We are welcoming people from all walks of life to participate and share their views. In the run up to the conference, we engaged with more than 50 community organisations to gauge people’s awareness about personalised medicine, and their thoughts about the challenges and the potential for their own healthcare. Watch this short video for a flavour of what our contributors had to say.

Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD,  will open the conference and we look forward to welcoming international speakers who will talk about progress in the area of personalised medicine in their countries, as well as leading national figures who will bring their expertise and experience to the conversation.

Timeliness

There have been a number of recent developments in personalised medicine such as:

Against this backdrop, our conference will bring together a wide range of perspectives on personalised medicine for the first time in Ireland, which is very timely to support the development of a national vision in this area which could advance research, transform healthcare and benefit patients.

Themes to be explored at the conference

The promise of personalised medicine: Personalised medicine promises to transform the way healthcare is delivered. This session will set the scene with an overview of what personalised medicine is and the opportunities it offers.

Personalised medicine in action: This session will present case studies showcasing the potential of personalised medicine across a range of applications.

Value assessment, cost and equity in personalised medicine: How should we define value when it comes to implementing personalised medicine? This session will broaden out the debate to examine some of the challenges in areas such as cost and equity.

Perspectives on the path forward for personalised medicine: The future potential of personalised medicine – from research, patient advocacy, healthcare, ethical and industry perspectives.

Find out more

Review the full programme

Register for the conference

Read about the venue

ENDS

For more information please contact:

Gillian Markey, HRB Communications Manager

e gmarkey@hrb.ie    m + 353 87 2288514