Personalized therapeutics: a potential threat to health equity.

Abstract

Throughout history, medical advances have been adopted first and preferentially by the well educated and economically advantaged groups. The development of personalized therapeutics holds promise to fundamentally alter the practice of clinical medicine, but if it also is used preferentially by economically advantaged groups, this advance will likely worsen socioeconomic disparities in health. Prospective development of strategies to ensure non- differential access to these therapies may help limit this unintended consequence of medical progress for economically disadvantaged groups.