Perspectives from the clinic: will the average physician embrace personalized medicine?

In 1961, Richard Asher argued that the clinical question regarding a particular intervention is not "should it work?" but rather "does it work?". Since that time, clinical trials have become the cornerstone of clinical science, providing physicians access to an expanding pharmacopeia of therapeutic options. The new capacity to change the course of illness has transformed patients' lives as well as the clinical encounter. The recent call for personalized medicine is an attempt to further our therapeutic effectiveness.