Dynamic Treatment Regimes for Optimizing Healthcare

The study of evidence-based dynamic treatment regimes (DTRs) comprises an important line of methodological research within the domain of personalized medicine, a medical paradigm that transitions from the one-size-fits-all ideology. In this chapter we aim to provide an up-to-date comprehensive overview of this cutting-edge area of research, including its fundamental mathematical framework, the proposed methodologies for developing DTRs (to which a major focus is dedicated), existing data sources, the issue of inference, and other practical considerations. We enrich our discussion with illustration of recent real-life examples. We also highlight that, despite the increasing progress and interest in the topic, documented by remarkable theoretical results, their application in real life is still quite limited. We hope to endow the reader with a foundation for further study of the expansive DTRs literature, acknowledging that there is an enormous research-practice gap to be bridged.