Denis Horgan is the Executive Director of the European Alliance for Personalized Medicine. He has extensive experience in health care, politics and civil rights. He has worked in the European Parliament on projects related to patient issues, the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare development in Afghanistan, Mexico and Palestine.

Horgan is visiting Bulgaria at the invitation of the Bulgarian Alliance for Precision and Personalized Medicine (BAPPM) in connection with the First Balkan Conference on Personalized Medicine and the establishment of the Balkan Network for Personalized Medicine.

Mr. Horgan, what are the new trends in the development of personalized medicine?

- The biggest progress we see is mainly in oncology, in identifying the markers according to what treatment would work and what wouldn't. This is actually the basis of personalized medicine. The second stage is blocking the attacks of cancer cells on healthy ones. Personalized medicine is not really a new discipline, it represents the integration of innovation and the application of science. I will give you an example with the following - from the use of the wagon years ago in new days it comes to traveling by plane. There are people who like horses and carts, but in any case it is faster to get there by plane. Many doctors and patients are afraid of new things. The question is how to use these advanced technologies. You don't need to know how the computer processor works, the important thing is to write a letter and press the button. Diagnosis based on blood tests can also be considered in the same way. The GP must be confident enough to use these blood tests in the laboratory and then be competent to interpret the results and give a diagnosis. This is actually the innovation in medicine. A very large part of treatment and diagnosis is now at the traditional level. When I was little, my mother used to give me lemon juice with honey, but the problem could be more serious, like cancer.

In medicine, it is important to have a better understanding of diseases and to make better decisions about whether to undertake treatment or not.

People love the beaten path, but there must also be a desire for development. As I already gave the e-mail example, I get an awful lot of e-mails, but in any case it is faster to answer them than to write letters and put them in the mail. This is actually the problem for medicine – when making a diagnosis, a difference of one or two weeks could be very important. If a patient is diagnosed in the first stage of the development of breast cancer, the treatment is much easier than if it is in the fourth stage. This is exactly what is being neglected in health care now, and it should not be happening. We are aware of the indications, symptoms of the disease in the first stage. It's the same with cervical cancer - it's the basics and it's not just about education. It should be explained to both doctors and patients that screening is necessary for disease prevention.

What change is needed in the traditional healthcare model?

- Personalized healthcare is nuclear medicine. Everyone works together in one system – doctor, researcher, laboratory technician. More integration is needed. This is the vital change. No one needs to be a brilliant researcher. Bulgaria does not need to do all the research, but simply implement and facilitate early diagnosis and avoid treatment when possible. That's why there are secured sources. A lot of the media focuses on the high cost of these studies, and that's really a problem. But we must note that science is developing in this direction. The question is how to achieve a good price and how to avoid costs in the health care system. If the dermatologist can use the new technologies, imagine if he could examine 200 patients a day just by taking pictures and sending the pictures to be read. The situation is similar with airlines – before tickets were very expensive, it was necessary to book a ticket, choose a seat, etc. By removing all this, the price of tickets falls. It is the same problem with health care, we need accredited laboratories that share common knowledge and have common standards and patients have confidence in the system.

A few days ago you announced that the Balkan Network for Personalized Medicine is about to be created - why is this necessary?

- Patients are the same everywhere. The problem with personalized medicine is that, for example, breast cancer already has many patients. If there are 1,000 cases in Bulgaria, there are 5,000 in the Balkans. This creates saturation with patients. By introducing a treatment that is lower in cost, the system will regulate itself. The Balkans is a region with common traditions, history and identity, while Europe is a region with different identities. Where we can have a common approach, we want to move in the same direction. If in the Balkans, for example, they dance in the same way, in France they dance differently. Everyone is dancing, the point is to do it in a similar way. It is the same in the health care system. In the Balkans, this general system can be applied because of the similar history of the region. The question is how to create synergy between the different areas. It is important that the advantages of different regions are combined so as to create synergy and combine knowledge and skills. The idea is this - everyone moves in the same direction, with a view to identity.

Source- RedMedia