Sound Health Physicians delivers personal, preventative, progressive medicine that empowers our members to actively engage in promoting their optimal health

 

For the past 2 years Sound Health Physicians has adopted P4 medicine: Prediction, Prevention, Personalization and Participation.

A recent Sunday NY Times article discusses the pitfalls of medication clinical testing.  The gist of this article is the nagging evidence that medications don’t work equally effectively in all people.  A clinical study showing a drug’s effectiveness often doesn’t translate to the real world (examples, Tamiflu and Avandia).  Additionally, release of a drug to the market doesn’t always assure its safety.  In fact, between 2000 and 2010 sixteen new medications were withdrawn from the market.

The following quote from the article illustrates the importance, the mandate of P4 Medicine now:

Researchers are coming to understand just how individualized human physiology and human pathology really are.  On a genetic level, the tumors in one person with pancreatic cancer almost surely won’t be identical to those of any other.  Even in a more widespread condition like high cholesterol, the variability between individuals can be great, meaning that any two patients may have starkly different reactions to a drug.

Medicine and health care have to take into account how each of us as individuals respond to different therapies.  A cookie cutter approach is not effective and probably dangerous.  An approach that looks for one’s genetic or molecular signature is our future to understanding the complex human.