Will the genetic individualization of disease force a new paradigm?
Disease, through the ages, has been considered as a 'visitation' from afar to the body or as 'disequilibrium' of an internal order. In practical terms, these two concepts of disease have generated a nosology, that is a classification of disease states. Genetics, in its dazzling recent advances, has opened another conceptual framework: disease is an individual event, inasmuch as our growing understanding of the genetic 'terrain' makes all subjects true individuals. Hence, it is time to abandon the old conceptual dichotomy for a Hegelian synthesis: there are no diseases (either as visitation or disequilibrium) only diseased individuals.
Division of Hematology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA.
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D004194:Disease; D030342:Genetic Diseases, Inborn / Q000235:genetics*; D005826:Genetics, Medical / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic