Cookbook Medicine - Beyond One Size Fits All

Medicine is evolving. I’ve worked in multiple healthcare organizations over the last decade, including both the largest public healthcare system in the U.S. and the most renown nonprofit health system in the world. One evolution that I’ve seen firsthand is the push for physicians, physician groups, clinical departments, and health systems to adopt clinical practice guidelines to standardize the practice of medicine.

The development of clinical practice guidelines and standardized protocols is a marvel of modern medicine. It has been refined through scientific rigor and the consensus of thought leaders in medicine, bringing evidence-based practice to scale. These guidelines are based on science and developed to provide widespread utility, offering the maximum benefit to the majority of patients. Benefits include improved safety, quality control, consistency, and financial and legal justification for courses of treatment. Despite the benefits of standardization in medical practice, it does have some drawbacks.

Some physicians I’ve met on the receiving end of these clinical practice guidelines negatively refer to this practice as “Cookbook Medicine” where these guidelines are designed to work best for the average individual. If a clinical practice guideline is developed for 90% of the population, then these guidelines would not work optimally or at all for the remaining 10% of people. It can become a very algorithmic way to provide care: “First prescribe medication A, and if it doesn’t work, then Medication B, then C, and then D.” This is also known as the “Try and Check” method, which can be a painful and costly process for patients who don’t fit the mold. In fact, the impact on the healthcare system is significant. Studies have shown that 48% of drug prescriptions{1} are either the wrong drug or the wrong dosage. When the stakes couldn’t be higher, 75% of cancer drugs are also the wrong drug and dosage {2}. These issues compound to over $748 billion in cost of harm to the U.S. healthcare system {3}.

I joined MapperHealth to make a difference in our healthcare system. MapperHealth’s new and innovative genomic services, now available for employers, can provide a missing link that can make our healthcare system more effective, efficient, and lead to improved healthcare outcomes for patients.

Every individual is unique. The human genome can provide significant insight into an individual's unique biology, what their inherent risks are for developing disease, and how they would react to different treatments and medications. At MapperHealth, by testing an individual’s DNA, we are able to determine which medications would work best for that individual’s unique biology. This gives physicians a powerful tool to identify the best medication for an individual on the first try. We are also able to help identify individuals at high risk for certain diseases 8.9-10.8 years earlier {4} than standard screening guidelines, giving patients and their physicians precious time to put in place low-cost interventions to save lives.

This leads to more effectively managed, personalized healthcare that reduces both drug and medical spend for employers. MapperHealth will equip today’s physicians with a powerful tool that helps fill the gap in our healthcare system and allows for truly individualized medicine.

1. Spear, B.B., M. Heath-Chiozzi, and J. Huff, Clinical application of pharmacogenetics. Trends Mol Med, 2001. 7(5): p. 201-4.
2. Spear, B.B., M. Heath-Chiozzi, and J. Huff, Clinical application of pharmacogenetics. Trends Mol Med, 2001. 7(5): p. 201-4.
3. Watanabe, J.H., T. McInnis, and J.D. Hirsch, Cost of Prescription Drug-Related Morbidity and Mortality. Ann Pharmacother, 2018. 52(9): p. 829-837.
4. Chuong M, et al. Preventing premature deaths through polygenic risk scores. Nat Commun. 2026 Jan 21;17(1):1379. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-68129-x. PMID: 41559068; PMCID: PMC12876942.