Overarching goals for the practice of medicine include preventing disease, making the correct diagnosis, and initiating evidence-based therapy to improve patient symptoms and quality of life. Precision medicine is an emerging field that encompasses these important goals. Precision medicine can be defined as a form of medicine that uses information about a patient's genes, proteins, environment, and lifestyle to prevent, diagnose, or treat disease. Oncologists have effectively used precision medicine for years to improve diagnostic strategies and treatment options; however, precision medicine has not been used to any significant degree in patients with disorders of gut-brain interaction (DGBIs). There is an argument to use precision medicine in DGBIs because these disorders are highly prevalent, affecting approximately 40% of the world's population. Functional dyspepsia, irritable bowel syndrome, and chronic constipation, some of the most prevalent and important DGBIs, are also clinically significant because they impose a negative impact on the health care system and greatly reduce patients' quality of life. This article defines precision medicine, clarifies differences between precision medicine and personalized medicine, discusses the use of precision medicine in the field of DGBIs, reviews its limitations, and outlines a strategy for its use in this field.
Lacy et al. (Wed,) studied this question.