Updated: Tue Jan. 31 2012 19:10:38

ctvwinnipeg.ca

The federal health minister says the government would like to move away from "one size fits all" medicine.

An announcement was made in Ottawa on Tuesday that more than $67 million is being invested into cutting edge research to identify markers of disease.

The aim is to get doctors to understand a person's body through their genes, family background and environment, then tailor a treatment just for them.

"With these bio markers, doctors will be able to tailor treatments based on what we know about the patient being treated," said Leona Aglukkaq, Health Minister. "this holds the potential to make many medical treatments more effective."

Some Manitobans feel it's money well spent, like Carey Tarr who has type 1 diabetes. She says she already recieves some treatment personalized for her, but says more can be done for others.

"Someone living with type one diabetes or any type diabetes may also be living with other conditions, " explained Tarr, "So there's a lot of room to look at how their body makeup and different conditions they are living with are affecting others as well."

It's believed personalized approaches will be effective in many areas including cancer.

CancerCare Manitoba says this initiative is a small step in the right direction.

"This is an initiatve that will begin to improve the specificity of our care so we aren't using a shot gun approach as we are sometimes forced to because we have no other way," said Dr. Dhali Dhaliwal, of CancerCare Manitoba.

Dr Dhaliwal says it could take at least five years before patients will see the benifits of this research.

The government says the funding is a research competition supported by three research groups, who have to match the amount of money they receive.

It's not known at this time what diseases the groups will be conducting research on.

-- with a report from CTV's Ina Sidhu

Read the original:
Personalized medicine could soon be reality

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