In 2009 the University Medicine Greifswald launched the Greifswald Approach to Individualized
Medicine (GANI_MED) to implement biomarker-based individualized diagnostic and therapeutic
strategies in clinical settings. Individualized Medicine (IM) has led not only to controversies
about its potentials but also about its societal ethical and health economic implications.
This anthology focusses on these areas and includes - next to clinical examples illustrating
how the integrated analysis of biomarkers leads to significant improvement of therapeutic
outcomes for a subgroup of patients - chapters about the definition history and epistemology
of IM. Additionally there is a focus on conceptual philosophical questions as well as
challenges for applied research ethics (informed consent process the IT-based consent
management and the handling of incidental findings). Finally it pays attention to health
economic aspects. The possibilities of IM to initiate a paradigm shift in the German health
care provision are investigated. Furthermore it is asked whether the G-DRG system is ready for
the implementation of such approaches into clinical routine.
