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Personalized laboratory medicine in the digital health era: recent developments and future challenges

  • Abdurrahman Coskun ORCID logo EMAIL logo and Giuseppe Lippi ORCID logo
Published/Copyright: September 28, 2023

Abstract

Interpretation of laboratory data is a comparative procedure and requires reliable reference data, which are mostly derived from population data but used for individuals in conventional laboratory medicine. Using population data as a “reference” for individuals has generated several problems related to diagnosing, monitoring, and treating single individuals. This issue can be resolved by using data from individuals’ repeated samples, as their personal reference, thus needing that laboratory data be personalized. The modern laboratory information system (LIS) can store the results of repeated measurements from millions of individuals. These data can then be analyzed to generate a variety of personalized reference data sets for numerous comparisons. In this manuscript, we redefine the term “personalized laboratory medicine” as the practices based on individual-specific samples and data. These reflect their unique biological characteristics, encompassing omics data, clinical chemistry, endocrinology, hematology, coagulation, and within-person biological variation of all laboratory data. It also includes information about individuals’ health behavior, chronotypes, and all statistical algorithms used to make precise decisions. This approach facilitates more accurate diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of diseases for each individual. Furthermore, we explore recent advancements and future challenges of personalized laboratory medicine in the context of the digital health era.


Corresponding author: Abdurrahman Coskun, Department of Medical Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University, Kayisdagi cad., No: 32, 34752 Atasehir – Istanbul, Türkiye, Phone: +90 216 5004960, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

The English of some sentences in this manuscript was edited by ChatGPT.

  1. Research ethics: Not applicable.

  2. Informed consent: Not applicable.

  3. Author contributions: The authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  4. Competing interests: The authors state no conflict of interest.

  5. Research funding: None declared.

  6. Data availability: Not applicable.

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Received: 2023-07-28
Accepted: 2023-09-18
Published Online: 2023-09-28
Published in Print: 2024-02-26

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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