Incorporating pattern identification of Chinese medicine into precision medicine: An integrative model for...

On 20 January, 2015, U.S. President Obama announced an ambitious plan called "Precision Medicine (PM) Initiative", aiming to deliver genetics-based medical treatments. PM has shown a promising prospect by tailoring disease treatments and preventions to individuals. However, a predominantly genetics-based method restricts its benefit and applicability in most chronic and complex diseases. Pattern identification (PI) is one of the representative characteristics of Chinese medicine implying the concept of holism and individualized treatment. It is another classification method taking environmental, psychosocial and other individual factors into account. Integrating PI with disease diagnosis of Western medicine will provide a strong complement to genetics-based PM, thus establish an integrative model for individualized medicine. PI provides new perspectives for PM, not only in clinical practice, but also in new drug development and clinical trial design. It is for sure that the integrative approach will ultimately lead to a safer, more convenient and effective patient-centered healthcare and most patients will benefit in the era of PM.