Personalized Respiratory Medicine. Exploring the Horizon

Respiratory diseases are highly prevalent among the general population, generating an urgent global health problem. An estimated 5% of the world population has asthma, 10% of the population over 40 has COPD and Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome affects 4% of the adult population. Lung cancer has become the most common cancer among men, as it is expected to be for women in the near future, and viral and bacterial respiratory infections are one of the most frequent causes of medical visits. Furthermore, the number of patients suffering from respiratory diseases is expected to increase significantly by 2050 as a result of the concentration of the world population in cities, deteriorating air quality and the ageing population.

The latest advances in the field of human genetics are outlining a paradigm shift in the way medicine tackles diseases: personalized medicine. In this new approach, there are no diseases, only patients. Efforts focus on treating the specific individual in question, adapting treatments to the individual biological characteristics of each patient.

This debate, organized jointly by B·Debate and the Barcelona Respiratory Network (BRN), with support from the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (AJRCCM), aims to delve deeper into how to tackle the challenge of respiratory health from the new perspective of personalized medicine. Some twenty global scientific leaders will debate the state of the art in the field of personalized respiratory medicine, identifying priorities and future opportunities for the next decade.

The event will bring together scientists from different disciplines (genomics, systems biology, epidemiology, clinical research, telemedicine, etc.) to provide a broad, transdisciplinary view of the topic. The conclusions drawn from the workshop will be published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the journal with the highest global impact in respiratory health.