Current developments in genomics and personalized health care: impact on public health

The knowledge gained from the characterization of genomes, especially the human genome, holds considerable potential for the development of new health care innovations for prevention, diagnosis, and management of many diseases in the coming decade. However, owing to the presence of highly complex scientific, economic, social, and ethical issues associated with this field, societies will need to be better prepared for the era of postgenomics and its consequences. It is important to ensure that the benefits of genomics are distributed fairly among all the countries of the world and that the well-tried and more conventional approaches to medical research and practice are not neglected while the medical potential of genomics is being explored. In this report, the author focuses mainly on human genomics, its applications, development of related technologies and issues related to the dissemination of knowledge derived from genome information, and finally, their impact on global health care.