Abstract
This chapter describes the concept of the patient journey, that is, the various interactions between a patient and a medical team as the patient first encounters the system, is diagnosed, treated, and followed up after whatever course of action was deemed appropriate. The various bottlenecks in the process are explained. As a new paradigm, the role of metabolic phenotyping (metabotyping) in monitoring the patient journey is discussed and examples are provided. The potential of such metabolic phenotyping in the clinic has implications in terms of stratified or personalized medicine, including adding information to aid diagnosis or to allow better prognosis, and these implications are listed. Finally, one example of the process, a dedicated phenome center, is illustrated.