Impact of molecular medicine on pathophysiology, medical practice, and medical education.

This article brings an overview of the influence of molecular medicine on pathophysiology, medical practice, and medical education. Various aspects of the growing impact of molecular medicine on clinical practice are discussed: diagnostic and predictive testing, gene and targeted therapy, and pharmacogenomics. Insufficient data from appropriate clinical studies and evidence-based medicine presently limit the applications of molecular medicine in clinical practice. Incorporation of conceptual and clinical aspects of molecular medicine in undergraduate and postgraduate curricula and a continuing education of medical professionals is an urgent imperative for the demands of medical care quality to be met in near future. The emphasis should be put on bedside-orientated molecular medicine. The prerequisite is translational research aimed to translate basic information into the improvement of healthcare of individual patients and the population as a whole.