What is precision medicine?

Page date: Published 7 Feb 2025; updated 25 Mar 2026. 2 min read.

The article describes precision medicine as adapting prevention or treatment using biological, environmental and lifestyle data, including genetic and molecular information, digital tools and imaging. It distinguishes the term from “personalised medicine” by saying the latter is tailored to an individual, while precision medicine often groups patients by shared biological traits.

Examples include treatments for rare genetic diseases, pharmacogenomics to inform drug response and dosage, risk-based approaches to chronic diseases, and precision oncology using tumour biomarkers such as HER2. It also discusses AI and machine learning for analysing clinical and patient data, wearable sensors for ongoing monitoring, and collaboration and data sharing as areas that may broaden its use. Potential benefits such as better outcomes, prevention and fewer unnecessary treatments are presented generally; the page provides no clinical evidence or guidance. Related links: Health and life science; precision oncology; wearable biosensors; digital healthcare.