Enabling Personalized Medicine Through Health Technology Innovations

As numerous studies show – and the Personalized Medicine Coalition’s education and advocacy efforts further underscore – personalized medicine is poised to play a big role in improving patient care and health care delivery in the U.S.  It offers earlier prevention, better-targeted treatments, health system cost savings and enhanced understanding of the differences in effectiveness of different treatment options for different patients.  

Despite its promise, personalized medicine faces challenges; the science is emerging and complex, regulatory pathways are not optimal, and health care financing and delivery create barriers to its adoption.  The successful implementation of health information technology can help address these challenges by creating a new infrastructure for developing data on personalized medicine interventions, and by giving them up to date information on available treatment options.  
 
Even while the government has made significant strides toward improving the technological infrastructure in the U.S. health care system, we must keep in mind widespread use of health information technology does not guarantee the advancement of personalized medicine.  As the government continues to expand and adapt the criteria for “meaningful use” of electronic health records (EHRs) in the coming years, we must continue to work to ensure that new systems are capable of handling, sharing and analyzing the genetic and outcomes data needed to promote the continued development of personalized medicine.
 
On January 28, I will be presenting findings from a paper I’ve developed that outlines key findings and recommendations about the public policy actions needed to ensure that health information technology facilitates the adoption of personalized medicine in the U.S. health care system. A fantastic panel of experts, including Mark Boguski (Center for Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School), Donald W. Rucker (Siemens Medical Solutions USA), Emad Rizk (McKesson Health Solutions) and Paul Billings (Life Technologies Corp.), will further discuss the policy and operational changes that would facilitate connectivity, integration, reimbursement reform and secondary analysis of information.  Plus, David Brailer, chairman of Health Evolution Partners and the first “health information czar” during the Bush administration, will deliver a keynote address.   

We encourage you to join us on January 28.  If you’d like to attend, please register here.  We look forward to seeing you there!