Personalized medicine for improved patient care | Keynote by Dr Renée Ruhaak

In this keynote delivered during the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), Dr Renée Ruhaak (Leiden University Medical Center) explores how metrology and standardisation underpin precision diagnostics — and why this is essential for delivering personalised medicine and improving patient care. Focusing on mass spectrometry-based diagnostics in clinical chemistry, Dr Ruhaak explains how laboratory medicine relies on accurate, comparable measurements across time and place — so that results (and decision limits) remain consistent from one hospital, country or test system to another. She further outlines how metrological traceability supports global decision limits, reference values and treatment targets, and why repeating costly clinical studies for each manufacturer is neither feasible nor desirable. 𝐔𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 “𝐨𝐧𝐞-𝐬𝐢𝐳𝐞-𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐬-𝐚𝐥𝐥” 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐲 𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠: ➡️ Molar-unit quantification of clinically relevant protein targets ➡️ Detection of qualitative variants (mutations) and glycosylation changes ➡️ Improved classification in diagnostic “grey zones” ➡️ A pathway toward protein standardisation, including proteoforms, through robust reference measurement systems 🎥 A must-watch for metrologists, clinical chemists, laboratory medicine professionals, IVD stakeholders and anyone interested in how measurement science enables more precise, patient-centred healthcare. #BIPM150 | #PersonalizedMedicine | #PrecisionDiagnostics | #MassSpectrometry | #ClinicalChemistry | #Metrology | #Traceability | #Standardization | #LaboratoryMedicine