Precision Medicine Under the Microscope

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Posted By: Roberta Mullin November 28, 2018

We are on the beat to find and report just what is happening now in Precision Medicine. Look for this on going report each month as we find articles, commentary, interviews, and events of interest on Precision Medicine. Read more posts on Precision Medicine and follow the hashtag #PrecisionMedicine.

The US National Library of Medicine says “although the term ‘precision medicine’ is relatively new, the concept has been a part of healthcare for many years. For example, a person who needs a blood transfusion is not given blood from a randomly selected donor; instead, the donor’s blood type is matched to the recipient to reduce the risk of complications. Although examples can be found in several areas of medicine, the role of precision medicine in day-to-day healthcare is relatively limited. Researchers hope that this approach will expand to many areas of health and healthcare in coming years.”

What is the difference between precision medicine and personalized medicine? What about pharmacogenomics?
According to the NIH US National Libarary of Medicine, National Research Council, there is a lot of overlap between the terms. Learn more.

Precision Medicine in Action

Department of Veterans Affairs and GE Healthcare Partner to Accelerate Use of 3D Printing in Patient Care
GE Healthcare (@GEHealthcare) and VA Puget Sound Health Care System (@VAPugetSound) announced a partnership to accelerate the use of 3D imaging in healthcare. As part of their research agreement, GE Healthcare will provide software and work stations, and the VA will provide input on its use of the technology. Prior to this agreement, the VA has used 3D software that is not designed for medical use. Now, the VA will use GE software designed specifically for the medical field – which is expected to reduce the time it takes to create 3D models from hours to minutes.

Paradigm4 Launches Precision Medicine Platform for UK Biobank Data And Announces Industry-leading Adopters
The UK Biobank is a groundbreaking international health resource with more than 1.5 petabytes of data planned for collection and analysis: medical records, genomic data, imaging, and measurements donated by 500,000 UK citizens. Paradigm4’s (@Paradigm4) newly launched REVEAL™ Translational Informatics Platform with its PheGe™ Browser enables bioinformaticians and scientists to readily work with the scale and diversity of public and proprietary multi-omics, behavioral, clinical, health outcomes, and environmental data generated today.

NIH $1.4M grant supports study into precision bioelectronic medicine
Feinstein Institute for Medical Research Professor Larry Miller, MD, has received a one-year, $1.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop and test a non-invasive method that accesses nerves in the chest and abdomen. Gaining non-invasive access to these nerves has the potential to drive development of bioelectronic medicine devices for treatment of conditions like obesity, heart failure and pulmonary hypertension.

Nine Schools of Nursing to Expand Awareness of the NIH’s All of Us Research Program
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) (@AACNursing) is pleased to announce that nine nursing schools have been selected to receive funding through AACN’s Mini-Grants Awards Program to educate diverse communities about the All of Us Research program.

To Read

GeekWire
National ‘All of Us’ campaign aims to enlist a million genomes for precision medicine – Eric Dishman (@ericdishman) is a living, breathing advertisement for the ambitious experiment he’s in charge of, the National Institutes of Health’s “All of Us” drive to collect and analyze the genomes of a million Americans. If it weren’t for the fact that he had his genome sequenced seven years ago, he probably would not be living and breathing.

Listen

Dr. Nick: The Incrementalist
The Incrementalist airs weekdays at 4:00am, 12 noon, and 8:00pm ET on HealthcareNOW radio. Host Dr. Nick van Terheyden aka Dr. Nick (@drnic1) talks to to Won Chung MD. The discussion offers great insights around correlation with car model, marriage and beyond for health prediction. Linking our buying and social data to outcomes and then offering this for better interventions.

Events

All of Us Research Program

4th Annual Personalized Medicine Conference
Held November 14-15 2018 at Harvard Medical School, Boston MA

Precision Medicine Initiative

The National Library of Medicine also tells us the “Precision Medicine Initiative is a long-term research endeavor, involving the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and multiple other research centers, which aims to understand how a person’s genetics, environment, and lifestyle can help determine the best approach to prevent or treat disease.” The Initiative has both short and long term goals.

Resources

The Journal of Precision Medicine (@JournPrecMed)
The world’s first print publication to discuss the many key global issues surrounding this rapidly evolving landscape. It does so by connecting both ends of the life science continuum – the compelling discoveries being realized in molecular research with the critical needs of the patient in the clinical setting.

The Personalized Medicine Coalition  (@permedcoalition)
PMC, representing innovators, scientists, patients, providers and payers, promotes the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts, services and products to benefit patients and the health system.