Open Access

Individual medicine gained increasing popularity in the medical industry in the past years. Especially oncology plays a major role in individual medicine, as significant research has been done in this area in the last decade. In order to provide individual treatment to patients, individualized medicine in cancer therapy uses molecular genetic examination of blood or tumor tissue. This paper discusses individual treatment approaches for the selected diseases of prostate cancer and leukemia. Individual medicine in prostate cancer is still considered to be in its infancy whereas in leukemia it is already advanced. Conventional treatment in prostate cancer is highly standardized and well-developed and thus, individual approaches in PCa are not yet well-established or well-researched. Therefore, the relevance of individual treatments in prostate cancer is still to be discussed. In contrast to that leukemia has a promising future in the area of individualized medicine. However, individualized treatments are still very expensive and health insurances only cover a limited amount of financial expenses. As genetic testing is becoming more significant and is likely to be used more often in the future, the cost for individual treatments are expected to decrease over time. Also, this paper suggests future implications for the application of individual medicine in Germany in the areas of health care promotion, disease prevention and disease management until the year 2030. Highlights of the paper: • Individual medicine in leukemia is already well-established, however necessity of individual approaches in prostate cancer is discussed • Individual medicine is currently very cost-intensive but increases the quality of life and the lifespan. • In order to implement individual medicine in the future it is anticipated to improve health care promotion, disease prevention and disease management.

Introduction: Since the first revolution of robotic-assisted surgery officially happened in 2000, the healthcare service worldwide has transformed into a new era due to its superior technological advancements, particularly in laparoscopic surgery. Da Vinci which is seen as a master-slave system and Kymerax which is categorized as a hand-held device are commonly used in robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery. Whilst a conventional or open method requires a large incision to perform a surgery, laparoscopy - a minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is an advantageous surgical method which reduces an abdominal incision to a minimum, and effectively exploited with robots. Methods: Based on available articles with the object of robotic surgical surgery, two SWOT analysis for Da Vinci and Kymerax were formulated to understand strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of each system in comparison with the traditional laparoscopic surgery. From that, the future outlook is anticipated based on the scientific background. Results: Alongside technological advantages of Da Vinci mainly known as 6-degree of freedom, dexterity enhancement, stereovision, tremor filtering and especially minimal invasive surgery, it still has disadvantages that are not neglectable such as huge investment and lack of haptic feedback. Although the malfunction rate of Da Vinci is not significantly high, surgeons should be aware of it to fix or alter instruments in time. Kymerax is not as advanced as Da Vinci but it can fill in the gap of the Da Vinci which includes thelarge investment and bulky instruments. The Kymerax is the low-cost hand-held device allowing multiple degrees of freedom. It is an optimal combination between traditional performance and robotic performance allowing surgeons to manipulate in their hands and ensure haptic feedback. Conclusions: Both Da Vinci and Kymerax systems offer superior benefits for medical service due to the ongoing technological growth. The cost-effectiveness of Da Vinci system is currently a problematic issue when medical institutions consider to install them. The surgical instruments market, however, has become highly competitive which is likely leading to the decline of the costly investments. In the digital world nowadays, it will be a promising future for more integrated medical inventions.