TECHNOLOGY
Pharmacogenomics
: The Right Drug , for the Right Patient , at the Right Dose
“ Every day , we are relying less and less on race for medicine . We ’ re getting to know why different individuals respond differently to a medication at the level of genetic factors , not race . But there are other important factors that connect to this too , whether you ' re talking about self-identified race or someone ' s ancestry .”
Self – identified race is another topic many would shy away from , and for the healthcare industry , it presents challenges .
“ My understanding of that is that it is up to the patient to identify , whether they identify with that particular population or not ”, says Streetman . “ I think concepts like that have become a very important in countries around the world where there ' s a lot of racial admixture . In the United States 2020 census , the proportion of people who identify as multiracial is more than 10 % now . 10 years ago , that was just 2.9 %. So that ' s more than a threefold increase in the percentage of patients who identify themselves as being multiracial .
76 February 2022