American medicine is expected to move from "one size fits all" to much more personalized, genome-based health care with President Obama's appointment of Francis Collins as head of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Collins headed the Human Genome mapping Project and has long been championing the use of genome knowledge to accelerate personalized medicine. Many drugs that worked for some people had to be pulled off the market because they were unsafe for others whose genetic makeup wouldn't tolerate them. Due to small differences in gene DNA arrangement in individuals the proteins coded for come out different and may not respond as required by certain drugs. Once such anomalies are determined then drugs can be tailored to be effective for a particular individual.
The US, if it doesn't fall into the socialized medicine trap, and many Asian and Eastern European countries will likely be medical science powerhouses. Canada and much of Europe have squelched innovation in their countries by nationalizing health care. Rather than allowing drug companies the profits needed to fund future medical technologies, they mandate cheap care. This is why we regularly see politicians from these countries coming to to the US to avoid long delays or get therapies unavailable in their own countries.
Click for Full Text!