Personalised medicine helps to determine as individually as possible the prevention or treatment plan for each person by analysing genetic data of the person in combination with the environment, health behaviour and health data of the person.
Implementation of personalised medicine in Estonia is being carried out within the framework of the personalised medicine programme 2016–2020 managed by the Ministry of Social Affairs.
The objective of the programme is to improve the health of the Estonian population by the implementation of results and innovations of Estonian and international research and development activities and thereby increase the average life expectancy and healthy life years.
Launch of the programme was preceded by a thorough preliminary study carried out in 2015.
Ongoing projects:
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Personalised medicine decision-making support
Planned projects:
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Health information data warehouse
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Personalised medicine innovation projects
Partners of the programme:
- University of Tartu
- Tallinn University of Technology
- Ministry of Education and Research
- Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications
- Estonian Family Physicians Association
- Tartu University Hospital
- North Estonia Medical Centre
- Estonian Genome Center, University of Tartu
- Estonian Research Council
International partners:
- ICPerMed
- PerMed ERA-NET
The preliminary study of the personalised medicine programme
A workgroup was formed to coordinate the study, which included: Ain Aaviksoo, Liis Rooväli and Anti Urm (The Ministry of Social Affairs), Raul Mill (Estonian E-Health Foundation), Jaanus Pikani (Tartu Biotechnology Park), Prof. Andres Metspalu (Estonian Genome Project), Prof. Peter Ross (Tallinn Technical University), Prof. Jaak Vilo (University of Tartu) and Prof. Raul-Allan Kiivet (Tartu University, Department of Public Health).
The preliminary study was led by Kitty Kubo.
Materials of the preliminary study
Feasibility study for personalised medicine in Estonia: Clinical Approach
- Report (2.12 MB, PDF)
Description of the current status and future needs of the Information Architecture and Data Management solutions for the national personalised medicine pilot project
- Report (6.05 MB, PDF)
Feasibility study for the development of digital decision support systems for personalised medicine
- Report (3.45 MB, PDF)
- Appendixes:
Annex 1.1: Scenario A: Prevention: Personalised Prevention Plan for Genetic Breast Cancer Risk (1.12 MB, PDF)
Annex 1.2: Scenario B: Chronic Patient: Monitoring and Personalised Treatment (CVD, Diabetes, Type 2) (1.38 MB, PDF)
Annex 2: Table of investigated nomenclatures, terminologies and classifications (892.74 KB, PDF)
Annex 3: (418.57 KB, PDF)Digital Decision Support System data sources (418.57 KB, PDF)
Annex 4: Overview of data at the Estonian Genome Center of the University of Tartu (570.96 KB, PDF)
Annex 5: (197.27 KB, PDF)Multiplex genetic testing panel, example - BROCA cancer risk panel (197.27 KB, PDF)
Annex 6: Genomic alterations as putative predictive biomarkers for cancer therapy (223.9 KB, PDF)
Annex 7: (2.03 MB, PDF)Variety of Digital Decision Support Systems (2.03 MB, PDF)
Annex 8: General requirements for the DDSS and the functional prototype (199.62 KB, PDF)
Annex 9: (430.8 KB, PDF)Digital Decision Support Systems classification with examples (430.8 KB, PDF)
Annex 10: (116.05 KB, PDF)Examples of prevention and early detection on the basis of cancer hereditary susceptibility testing
with personalised preventive strategies (116.05 KB, PDF)
Feasibility study for the development of business cooperation, management organisation and evaluation methodology for personalised medicine pilot project
- Report (3.74 MB, PDF)
Clinical flagship projects
Clinical flagship projects of the national personalised medicine programme serve as the first important step in the implementation of the personalised medicine programme. On the basis of results of clinical flagship projects, an organisational and technical environment allowing complex use of health and genetic data is designed and tested in 2017–2019. On this basis, a new personalised medicine service model and methodologies are developed, on the basis of which it is possible to extended step-by-step approach of the personalised medicine in the whole healthcare scheme.
It is planned to carry out two clinical pilot projects:
- Personal prevention and early detection of breast cancer
- Prevention of cardiovascular disease, statin treatment (cholesterol lowering treatment) determination and implementation of personal indications
Additional information
- Read about the competition for finding a promoter of clinical personalised medicine flagship projects on the website of the Estonian Research Council »