Panel discussion: The precision medicine era: Is India ready?

Precision Medicine in the country is considered to be at an early adoption stage. A diverse country like India, with over 4000 population groups, and a significant percentage of consanguineous marriages presents a high-risk and prevalence of inherited genetic disorders that require attention for early diagnosis, right treatment, and management. With 1.4 billion people, the absolute number of patients suffering from diseases in which genetics play a role is significantly large.

However, the challenges are about creating the awareness for wide-spread adoption.India is still an emerging market for genomics.Therefore, the big question is India ready for this leap?
The panel discussion deliberated on the various aspects that involve in making India’s genetics industry, healthcare providers as well as the Indian population ready for this leap.

Highlights

• There is an explosion of data, if not analysed appropriately will bring the precision medicine era to an end
• Genomics is not the only tool to be checked while practicing precision medicine. Precision medicine is much beyond genomics
• We are not yet ready for the precision medicine era
• Pharmacogenetics has the key to solve many complex medical puzzles. In future pharmacogenetics will be an integral part of medical practice
• Educating clinicians on the actual meaning and the various factors of precision medicine is paramount
• Carrier screening is yet to be explored in India. We therefore not capable enough to design smaller screening tools for certain diseases
• Our medical education system needs to include genetics

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