Abstract

HERNANDEZ BETANCOURT, Jenny de la Caridad  and  SERRANO BARRERA, Orlando. Customized medicine, genomic revolution and the national health care system. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2014, vol.40, n.4, pp.379-391. ISSN 0864-3466.

Deepening into the knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of the health/disease process has made many scientific advances to find a place into the clinical practice, as is the case of stem cells therapy in Cuba. The results derived from the sequencing of the human genome, as well of other species, have had an impact in the improvement of diagnoses and therapies; however, within the Cuban national health system the applications of genomic technologies are not widespread. Despite the fact that this new medicine still needs to accumulate much more evidence supporting its safety and efficacy, it is urgent to design a customized strategy by the Cuban Ministry of Public Health towards the assessment of current and potential uses of genomic medicine for the benefit of the population's health. Among other actions, this paper submitted the proposal of the creation of a multi-institutional and intersectoral taskforce to study the clinical, technological, regulatory and bioethical dimensions of genomic medicine. It is mandatory to train both undergraduate students and staff since they will be responsible to introduce and extend such technologies in their professional practice. It is already possible to make up cohorts resembling as much as possible the Cuban population, to study them and to collect and preserve their samples in biobanks established for such purposes.

Keywords : customized medicine; genomics; genomic medicine; bioinformatics; medical teaching; biobanks; cohorts.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )