Understanding the human genome should make it much easier to prescribe the right medicine for a patient straight away. It is estimated that in the US around 100,000 people die each year, and 2 million people are hospitalised as a result of being given a medicine which doesn’t suit them. If doctors can have access to a patient’s genome they will be able to prescribe medication which will work with rather than against their patients.

Another important improvement should be in the dosages of medicines used. Taking the age or weight of a person and using it to decide what dose of a medicine they should be given is a fairly random way of doing things. Genetic information about individuals would allow doctors to work out just how rapidly each person deals with a particular medicine and excretes it from their body. Many people could have much lower doses of medicines, whilst those who need it could be given higher doses.

Advances like these would be of enormous benefit to patients, and they would also save the NHS a great deal of money in medicine wastage and treating people who react badly to the medicine they have been given.