1) Personalized medicine is driven by new technologies, rising healthcare costs, and a shift toward greater patient involvement in medical decisions. 2) Key factors driving personalized medicine include new technologies, patients paying more for healthcare and wanting more input, less continuity with physicians, and rising costs requiring more targeted treatment. 3) Determining the promise versus hype of personalized medicine requires identifying valid biomarkers, validating them in large datasets, and applying them in clinical practice.