Sex and gender: modifiers of health, disease, and medicine

Sex and gender: modifiers of health, disease, and medicine

The Lancet v396(10250) P565-582, 22 August 2020

• This Review discusses the fundamental influences of sex and gender as modifiers of the major causes of death and morbidity. We articulate how the genetic, epigenetic, and hormonal influences of biological sex influence physiology and disease, and how the social constructs of gender affect the behaviour of the community, clinicians, and patients in the health-care system and interact with pathobiology. We aim to guide clinicians and researchers to consider sex and gender in their approach to diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases as a necessary and fundamental step towards precision medicine, which will benefit men's and women's health.

Structural racism in precision medicine: leaving no one behind.

Structural racism in precision medicine: leaving no one behind.
BMC Med Ethics 21, 17 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-0457-8

• Precision medicine (PM) is an emerging approach to individualized care. It aims to help physicians better comprehend and predict the needs of their patients while effectively adopting in a timely manner the most suitable treatment by promoting the sharing of health data and the implementation of learning healthcare systems. PM initiatives need to pay special attention to the discriminatory and harmful impacts that structural racism could have on minority groups involved in their respective projects.

Abstract

A data driven approach to personalised cancer care

A data driven approach to personalised cancer care
Reform 26 October 2018

• This report considers how a better collection and use of data can significantly improve cancer outcomes. 
• The new model of cancer care proposed in this paper looks at how data could be examined and used at every stage of the treatment journey, from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and recovery. Making better use of data will not only improve cancer outcomes but will also enable the NHS to manage the disease far more effectively, now, and in the future. 
• This paper is sponsored by AbbVie.