New technology can be used to tailor treatments to the individual patient. However, for the potentials to be realized, qualified staff are needed. To this end, five Danish universities have joined forces to establish a master’s degree programme in personalized medicine.
Personalized medicine will be an important element in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease in future. The massive advances made in big data and biotechnology pave the way for a healthcare system that can tailor treatments to individual patients. But there is a need for qualified staff to support that development. Therefore, the faculties of health sciences at the University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University, Aalborg University, and the University of Southern Denmark have joined forces with the DTU to establish a new master’s degree programme in personalized medicine.
The programme is targeted at health science, technical and other scientific graduates working in healthcare, university research environments, public institutions and authorities, and the pharmaceutical industry.
Much of the programme is based on group work, case studies and team-based learning, says head of studies Sisse Ostrowski, professor in the Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Copenhagen’s Faculty of Health Sciences.
“Personalized medicine will not progress if it’s limited to researchers identifying new gene variants and collecting data. They also need to understand and cooperate with the healthcare professionals who have to process the data and explain it to patients and relatives. In addition, the ethical, social and legal aspects must be considered,” she says.