Abstract: Objective · To give a retrospective bibliometric analysis of documents about precision medicine and to reveal the characteristics and hotspots of global research output. Methods · Articles about the research of precision medicine between 2013 and 2017 were retrieved in PubMed and bibliometric methods were used to evaluate global scientific output and to identify the most active factors, such as countries, journals, highly cited papers, etc. Coword analysis was also used to show the research hotspots and trends. Results · A total of 23 284 publications on the research of precision medicine 2013 to 2017 were retrieved in this study. “Molecular targeted therapy” and “antineoplastic agents” were the most frequently used co-words in precision medicine. Conclusion · Molecular targeted therapy for cancer treatment is the hotspot in the precision medicine research, in which the study of antineoplastic agents is the main topic.

Key words: precision medicine, personalized medicine, bibliometric analysis, co-word analysis, hotspots analysis