Personalised medicine, precision medicine, individualised medicine…aren’t we forgetting something? Here at Inspire2Live we’re convinced that most, if not all, of us are driven to do good for patients by putting them in the centre of our activities. But let’s be honest, how often is this really happening?

Inspire2Live launched the DEEP (Decision Excellence for Each Patient) Diagnostics initiative to create a true patient-centric approach. Up until now, all healthcare activities, even those we call patient-centric, have been more drug-centric i.e. “We have a drug, so let’s find a group of patients for it”. This is such an old-fashioned approach. We should be putting everything we know, and are already capable of doing, into practice which is simply not the case today.

DEEP Diagnostics is a combination of state-of-the-art diagnostics (pathology, DNA-sequencing and liquid biopsies) and drug screening (organoids, organ on a chip and tissue culture) used together with mathematical game-theory for the best prediction of treatment outcome. This approach leads to more and better information for the patient and oncologist to create a treatment plan which fits the needs of the patient and their disease i.e. “For this patient, with this specific diagnosis, at this point in time, we have this treatment” that is 100% patient-centricity.

The DEEP Diagnostics approach isn’t perfect but perfection is the enemy of good. One thing we do know is that patients with an unmet medical need (e.g., cancer of unknown primary, pancreatic cancer, glioblastoma et cetera) will particularly benefit from this approach. Through good conversations between patient and oncologist, based on the outcome of DEEP Diagnostics, the patient can make up their own mind and say “Yes, this is what I want and need and this is how I would like you to treat me doctor”. For treatments starting with this approach, we build in learning loops to improve the outcome and bring hope to patients for whom we still lack good treatment options.

Inspire2Live applied for a EU4Health Grant in January to further our work in the field of DEEP Diagnostics and we hope to receive funding in June. We’ll keep you updated regularly and if you need any additional information in the meantime, please contact Piarella or Peter.

Piarella Peralta & Peter Kapitein
Patient Advocates, Inspire2Live