Personalised medicine

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: 

 

Planned projects: 

  • Health information data warehouse

  • Personalised medicine innovation projects

 

Partners of the programme: 

 

International partners: 

 

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

Description of the current status and future needs of the Information Architecture and Data Management solutions for the national personalised medicine pilot project

Feasibility study for the development of digital decision support systems for personalised medicine

Annex 1.1: Scenario A: Prevention: Personalised Prevention Plan for Genetic Breast Cancer Risk

Annex 1.2: Scenario B: Chronic Patient: Monitoring and Personalised Treatment (CVD, Diabetes, Type 2)

Annex 2: Table of investigated nomenclatures, terminologies and classifications

Annex 3: Digital Decision Support System data sources

Annex 4: Overview of data at the Estonian Genome Center of the University of Tartu

Annex 5: Multiplex genetic testing panel, example - BROCA cancer risk panel

Annex 6: Genomic alterations as putative predictive biomarkers for cancer therapy

Annex 7: Variety of Digital Decision Support Systems

Annex 8: General requirements for the DDSS and the functional prototype

Annex 9: Digital Decision Support Systems classification with examples 

Annex 10: Examples of prevention and early detection on the basis of cancer hereditary susceptibility testing
with personalised preventive strategies

Feasibility study for the development of business cooperation, management organisation and evaluation methodology for personalised medicine pilot project

 

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

Last updated: 7 June 2017