Personalized Medicine in the U.S. and Germany: Awareness, Acceptance, Use and Preconditions for the Wide Implementation into the Medical Standard

The aim of our research was to collect comprehensive data about the public and physician awareness, acceptance and use of Personalized Medicine (PM), as well as their opinions on PM reimbursement and genetic privacy protection in the U.S. and Germany. In order to give a better overview, we compared our survey results with the results from other studies and discussed Personalized Medicine preconditions for its wide implementation into the medical standard. For the data collection, using the same methodology, we performed several surveys in Pennsylvania (U.S.) and Bavaria (Germany). Physicians were contacted via letter, while public representatives in person. Survey results, analyzed by means of descriptive and non-parametric statistic methods, have shown that awareness, acceptance, use and opinions on PM aspects in Pennsylvania and Bavaria were not significantly different. In both states there were strong concerns about genetic privacy protection and no support of one genetic database. The costs for Personalized Medicine were expected to be covered by health insurances and governmental funds. Summarizing, we came to the conclusion that for PM wide implementation there will be need to adjust the healthcare reimbursement system, as well as adopt new laws which protect against genetic misuse and simultaneously enable voluntary data provision.