Introduction

‘Personalised medicine’ is commonly understood as the application of biological (for example, genomic) data to improve the diagnosis, therapy and prevention of diseases. Over the last few years, this phrase has become the symbol of medical progress and a label for better health care in the future. However, a controversial debate has developed whether these promises of better, more personal and more cost-efficient medicine are realistic. Therefore, the book assembles contributions of leading experts from normative and empirical disciplines with a focus on a critical reflection about ‘personalised medicine’ – a topic which is often dealt with in a rather uncritical way in current literature.