The combination of personalized care, prediction of treatment success, prevention of disease and patient participation in the elaboration of the treatment plan is expected to substantially improve the therapeutic approach for individuals suffering from chronic disabling conditions. Several factors are driving increased interest in precision medicine in otorhinolaryngology. Integrating precision medicine principles into translational hearing loss research and clinical practice, hearing specialists are uniquely positioned to effectively treat the heterogeneous causes and manifestations of HL on an individualized basis. In the last years, audiology has also been faced with the potential application of precision medicine in hearing loss. Prediction of success of treatment is crucial to allow the patient to become an active partner in the decision-making process of medical or surgical treatment. Physicians treating patients especially with chronic disorders might find precision medicine extremely interesting to find reports on predictors of success of medical or surgical interventions. Introduced in the field of oncology, it is now considered of major interest in other medical domains like allergy chronic airway diseases, which face an urgent need to improve the level of disease control, enhance patient satisfaction and increase effectiveness of preventive interventions. In the last years, the increased knowledge about classification of diseases on the molecular level has also been the basis for personalized medicine in otorhinolaryngology. PM proposes to improve efficiency and quality of care, to reduce side effects and to increase long-term control of chronic disease.

Precision medicine (PM) is increasingly recognized as the way forward for optimizing patient care.

Corso web editor online