The European Union and its Member States are faced with the challenge of an emerging field in medicine: personalised medicine. Therapeutic interventions, and in particular medicinal products, are increasingly intended for well targeted and smaller patient populations.
These interventions are usually intended for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, cure or long term management of severe, debilitating, life-threatening diseases. They are using high value innovations, made possible thanks to the progress of medical research such as: pharmacology, gene therapy, cell therapy, tissue engineering, gene testing and other sophisticated diagnostic tools, including medical imaging and high-tech medical devices. Bringing these innovations to patients, as well as guaranteeing the best possible care and medical practices, while optimising the use of healthcare resources, requires both a higher concentration of expertise and an increased collaboration at the EU level.
This challenge is one more reason for policy makers at Member States level as well as at European level to make rare diseases an always higher priority in the EU 8th Research Framework Programme and the 3rd EU Health Policy Programme, both covering the period 2014-2020. Rare diseases are the laboratory to prepare the future of healthcare. Rare diseases are already at the forefront to help shape the future of healthcare.
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Great idea and great job! I’m looking forward to reading more and participating to the discussion!
write your comment here… Can anyone tell me if idiopathoic axonal peripheral neuropathy falls into the category for rare disease None in Scotland/UK can find the cause of my illness which is muscle degeneration
below the knees and after a year i can hardly walk I am desperate as none can help me and my neurolgist said it will be decades before anyone can help me how can this be so in 2010 Can stem cells help ?