"The goal of the meeting is to bring together mordic stakeholders in precision medicine", says professor Paul Franks at Lund University, who hosts the meeting. In addition to research findings, we will also discuss the legal and political obstacles that exist to develop research on precision medicine.

Individual treatment

About the importance of new research within his own field, diabetes, Paul Franks says:

"Globally, every twelve people have diabetes, and the disease has enormous social and economic consequences. Established treatment methods are sometimes ineffective and many suffer as their individual biological profile reduces their receptivity. The challenge lies in discovering and describing these factors and using the knowledge for individually adapted treatment methods.”

New infrastructure

One of the lecturers is Richard Rosenquist Brandell, Professor of Clinical Genetics at Karolinska Institute and Project Manager for GMS, Genomic Medicine Sweden.
"GMS aims at building a new type of infrastructure in Swedish health care to be able to implement new technologies and enable precision medicine," he says. Diagnosis should be equal regardless of regional affiliation and proper treatment should be given to the right patient. The goal is also to build a national database, which also will become an important research resource, and to form regional centres for genomic medicine.

"We are in a start-up phase for GMS and the interest and response has been great. We hope to start pilot projects in hereditary diseases and cancer and in the long term find new ways in which academia, healthcare and industry can collaborate nationally. The meeting in Malmö offers the opportunity to discuss Nordic synergy and, in the long term, how we can share both data and knowledge.

Facts/A Nordic Initiative for precision medicine

The sympsoium in Malmö is the fourth of its kind and is organized by Lund University Diabetes Centre.
https://www.ludc.lu.se/nifpm