Public Evening (in German): Massgeschneiderte Medizin?
Wednesday, 14. September 2011 | 20:00 Uhr
Speaker
Reporting
For the first time, Martin Odermatt, new Mayor of Engelberg, welcomed the optimistic guests from the region to the public evening event of the Academia Engelberg Foundation.
During his introduction, Peter Suter, former president of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences, outlined chances and risks of customized medicine. Due to the progress in medicine, prevention will be increasingly more important.
“We can read genome sequences, but we still cannot understand them. Already today, it is possible to determine certain disease risks. But we still do not know how the interactions of the health risks and our behaviour will affect our body. As soon as we detect this, medical treatment will have new perspectives”, Professor for Medicine Uta Francke (left), Stanford Medical School in the US, commented the current stage of research. Verena Briner, head physician at the Cantonal Hospital of Lucerne is more sceptical. “I know many heart-attack patients who do not follow our recommendation of healthier nutrition, more exercise and less distress even though they suffered from the consequences.”
Ethics Professor Peter Schaber, University of Zurich, warned against being too optimistic. “How will we process the information that we run a 30 percent risk of suffering from Alzheimer?” He further stressed that communication between the doctor and the patient play a decisive role.
The former member of the government of the Canton of Lucerne Markus Dürr expects massively higher costs due to customized medicine as better medication will surely not be less expensive. Savings could be made if mistreatments are avoided.
During the whole evening, moderator Dr. Beat Glogger systematically involved the audience in the discussion about advantages and disadvantages of customized medicine – a method that stimulated a vivid debate.
During the subsequent night-cap offered by the Hotel Europe/Europäischer Hof, opportunities and limits of customized medicine gave much to talk about among the 220 participants of the public evening event organized by the Academia Engelberg Foundation. The team of the Hotel Europe/Europäischer Hof was in charge of the drinks and appetizers.
