According to data and analytics company, GlobalData, personalised medicine is becoming an increasing possibility for patients as a result of newly developed algorithms and the use of big data.
Personal medicine
Using a specially developed algorithm, researchers from the McLean Hospital in Massachusetts were able to identify patients that may respond best to antidepressants, before they begin treatment. The study demonstrated that around a third of patients would gain some therapeutic benefit from receiving an antidepressant, with older patients characterised as suffering from more severe depression and negative emotionality who also demonstrated better cognitive control on computerised tasks, being the most likely to benefit.