Precision medicine and diseases as natural kinds: An epistemological dilemma

J Eval Clin Pract. 2022 Oct;28(5):835-842. doi: 10.1111/jep.13707. Epub 2022 May 29.

Abstract

Background: The most important advance of precision medicine (PM) has been a specific way to define and understand disease. However, PM may fail to be therapeutically effective if diseases are natural kinds.

Objective: To attest adverse consequences of treatments suggested by PM that do not generalize well.

Methods: Conceptual analysis of PM; Epistemology of clinical reasoning; Cases that show diseases as natural kinds to clash with epistemology of PM.

Results: Contemplation of future research options that could clarify the position of PM under the conception of diseases as natural kinds.

Conclusion: Need for improved design of future interventions that better acknowledge problematic epistemology of PM.

Keywords: epistemology; evolution; inductive reasoning; natural kinds; precision medicine.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Knowledge*
  • Precision Medicine*