A report on personalised medicine published by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies has pointed to the importance of new roles and training for new technologies, along with the effective use of data, and investment in infrastructure.
Whilst personalised medicine has the potential to “revolutionise the way care is delivered”, considerations around ethical and social issues, infrastructural and operational requirements, evidence generation and funding, and aligning the regulatory landscape, need to be addressed, according to the WHO. “Realising the potential of personalised medicine requires significant investment in competence development and infrastructure, including biobanks, next-generation sequencing and interoperable electronic health records,” it continues.
A lack of success in exploiting existing datasets is hampering personalised medicine, the WHO states, whilst robust processes are needed for informed consent, accompanied by appropriate oversight and governance, and improved personalised medicine literacy amongst health professionals and patients. From an infrastructure perspective, the WHO stresses the importance of “high-quality, consistent and interoperable” EHR systems to support the delivery of personalised approaches and research in this space. Clinical decision support tools using patient data to offer personalised treatment recommendations can be integrated, but the integration of genomic testing results in existing EHR systems is a “developing area”, it adds.
For the workforce, the WHO focuses on the need for clinicians to develop necessary skills and ethical awareness, recommending training programmes covering topics such as genomics, digital health, data management, and ethics. “Competence-based training of health care professionals is necessary for implementation,” it states. “Furthermore, as person-centeredness and participation are essential components of personalised medicine, related academic curricula should take a holistic approach and cultivate skills around genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors in health management as well as the facilitation of informed choices, respect for individual preferences, and promotion of empathetic and respectful communication.” Aside from the development of competencies in areas like big data and bioinformatics, it highlights that new roles and professional profiles will emerge to meet personalised health requirements, including in the development of digital competencies within the pharmaceutical workforce.
In the report, the WHO also offers an update on the EU’s “1+ Million Genomes” initiative, launched in 2018, and dedicated to facilitating secure access to genomic and related clinical data across Europe. 26 EU countries, including Norway, have now signed a declaration committing to the implementation of personalised medicine by the development of a European data infrastructure for genomic data. Agreements have also reportedly been reached to implement national regulations to allow federated access to this data, and its integration into the European Health Data Space is “expected to further enhance the value of these data for the long-term benefit of researchers, health care professionals and citizens alike”.
Citation: Litvinova Y, Lafolie P, Panteli D. Personalized medicine for healthier populations: Key considerations for policy-makers. Copenhagen: European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, WHO Regional Office for Europe; 2025. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
Wider trend: uses of health data
The Data Use and Access Bill has formally entered into law, in a move the government hopes will reduce NHS bureaucracy and accelerate innovation in science and tech. The bill states the intent for interoperability, for real-time access to health information such as pre-existing conditions, appointments, and tests, across different care settings “no matter what IT system they are using”. The government estimates that enabling data sharing across platforms will save NHS staff 140,000 hours per year in admin.
A large-scale public engagement report commissioned by NHSE on building and maintaining public trust in data use across health and care has been published, focusing on the approach to creating a single patient record and the secondary use of GP data. It noted “relief” and “enthusiasm” from participants around not having to repeat their health history when interacting with different parts of the health and care system, and highlighted concerns about data accuracy, privacy, and security.
A review commissioned by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care into six organisations overseeing the safety of care has been completed, with Dr Penny Dash publishing ten main findings and a total of nine recommendations. Headline findings include that despite a shift toward safety and “considerable resources deployed”, relatively small improvements have been seen; that tech, data and analytics should play a “far more significant role” in supporting quality of care; and that insufficient use is currently being made of NHS data resources.
