It is estimated that lifestyle influences an individual's health by about 40%. Genetics accounts for just under a third, followed by social networks and contacts (15%), medications taken and medical history (10%), and the environment (5%).
These figures are, of course, indicative of factors that are intertwined, but they allow us to understand how diet, physical activity, and certain risky behaviors have a significant impact on health. Unlike the environment and genes, lifestyle is something we can influence.
In this context, precision health goes beyond the general observation that some behaviors are more beneficial than others. Starting from the assumption that each individual is unique, this approach considers the person as a whole in order to define personalized prevention, diagnosis, and treatment strategies.
“The concept of ‘P4 health’ helps to define this approach, in which health is predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory,” explains Stéphane Meystre, Full Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Director of Institute of Digital Technologies for Personalised Healthcare at SUPSI (MeDiTech). We are talking about an approach that aims to help people stay healthy through the use of devices and algorithms to collect, analyze, and provide information that helps them make decisions in their daily lives."
Technology at your fingertips
Just glance at your wrist to see how the smartwatch you wear can already be an extremely valuable tool for precision health, thanks to its heart rate and sleep quality measurements. Looking ahead, by also integrating clinical, genetic, and environmental data, similar devices could become true personal health advisors.
Technological advances in data collection, aggregation, and interpretation, supported by sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms, are not limited to everyday life but are also vectors of new possibilities in the clinical field, where the focus is on precision medicine, based on the same principles.
“It is a comprehensive approach that seeks genetic information - as complete as possible - as well as other clinical parameters and other elements that influence individual health, with the aim of obtaining the most accurate and individualized information possible about each patient,” adds Alessandro Ceschi, Head of Medical Training and Research at the Cantonal Hospital Organization (EOC) and Professor of Pharmacology and Clinical Toxicology at the University of Lugano. This information allows for targeted diagnostics and effective therapies with reduced side effects."
The importance of collaboration
Health and precision medicine rely on the use of technology, understood as a convergence of knowledge and expertise in multiple fields.
At SUPSI, the MeDiTech Institute has made precision health its main strategic focus, involving other research institutes in the Department of Innovative Technologies (and beyond) in the development of medical devices, intelligent biomedical sensors, signal processing, image analysis, and new solutions for ubiquitous health and telemedicine. Among them is the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence USI-SUPSI, which focuses on the application of artificial intelligence to precision medicine.
"Our main focus is the development of advanced artificial intelligence techniques to support precision medicine. We develop AI models and methods to apply them to real-world problems in collaboration with clinicians or companies in the biomedical sector," explains Laura Azzimonti, SUPSI’s senior research and lecturer at IDSIA USI-SUPSI, head of the Machine Learning for Bioinformatics and Personalized Medicine group at the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB).
A digital mirror
The dazzling development of artificial intelligence models and technology in general points to a future in which health and medicine will be increasingly tailored to the individual, but it is still difficult to imagine what this future will look like. “A realistic goal that could be achieved in about ten years,” continues Stéphane Meystre, "is the so-called digital twin: a virtual representation of an individual synchronized with their physical twin. It could be a powerful predictive tool on which to simulate behaviors, drugs, and therapies. A digital twin to be studied to understand how the body and its various organs work, to make new discoveries, and to expand knowledge."