Systems medicine: from concept to realization

Abstract

This paper addresses issues related to the implementation of a systems approach in clinical medicine.On the example of such widespread and often united by a single pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases as myocardial infarction, arterial hypertension, atrial fibrillation and obesity, the authors make an attempt to draw attention to the barriers that in the present accompany the cardiological patient in his pathology: increasing morbidity, not always effective treatment, not decreasing lethality, etc.The solution to the problem, according to the authors, lies in combining systemic and integrative approaches.With the help of systems medicine, which combines the study of the pathophysiology of the patient at deeper levels – cellular, molecular, genetic – it is possible to search for individual features of the disease.The integrative approach as a tool to implement the concept of systems medicine will provide a much more accurate characterisation of the patient’s status, which is necessary forindividualisation of observation and treatment with the expected benefits and minimisation of risks for each patient individually.A connecting and resulting link is envisaged in the use of information technology to process the entire patient data set. It is expected that this approach will provide an opportunity to move to a fundamentally new understanding of pathological processes and the provision of directed effective personalised care.