Unintended consequences for patients of future personalized pharmacoprinting

Abstract

Manufacturing pharmaceuticals by the use of 3D printing is a promising way to achieve more personalized drug treatment. To effectively use this technology, patients need to continuously measure their health, and new decisions have to be taken, for example, regarding the number of daily drugs including how many active pharmaceutical substances these should contain along with decisions around size, shape and color. Positive as well as negative effects of pharmacoprinted medicine on patients are likely to occur. Negative consequences with influence on patient autonomy and role might include: patients not being capable or interested in conducting self-monitoring, loosing overview of the medical treatment, reducing the ability to perform self-regulation, loosing trust in the pharmacoprinted medicine, and not being interested in taking on a new role in medical decision making. These issues are discussed in the paper in order to prevent upcoming challenges in the area of pharmacoprinting.

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