The actions of healthcare organizations, industry, government institutions, Congress, and the presidential administrations see that personalized medicine to come to full shape, requires an association of laws, regulatory and insurance reimbursement policies, healthcare information technology, medical education, and research investment. The progress of each element of that infrastructure is going on a different pace. However, to make progress of certain elements, such as insurance reimbursement and medical education, requires a substantial effort to change mindsets and create new policies (Figure 4.57).

Thus, the “personalized medicine” will be known, simply, as medicine when-

1. all of the elements of infrastructure fall into place,
2. we begin to classify and treat diseases not just by their most obvious signs and symptoms, but also by their molecular profiles,
3. physicians combine their knowledge and judgment with a network of linked databases that help them interpret and act upon a patient’s genomic information,
4. insurance companies pay for tests and treatments that anticipate the needs of the patient as much as it reacts to them.
5. and when regulators insist on using all information available to the physician, including genetic tests, to ensure the safety and efficacy of an approved drug.