The emerging field of precision medicine is speeding ahead, marked by non-traditional new partnerships across different groups in medicine, health care, technology, academia and government. It is increasingly viewed as mainstream treatment, especially in cancer research and diagnostics.
Click here for larger version
Johns Hopkins plans to launch eight precision medicine centers this year that will highlight areas where new technologies and measurement tools can be applied to improve patient care. The centers will focus on heart failure, genetics, prostate cancer, among other conditions.
“With the use of new measurement tools and data analytics, patients can be divided into very distinct subgroups that are so different in trajectory, it’s almost as if each subgroup represents a different disease.”
At a societal level, once we know the genetic steps to resistance, we could conceivably begin a surveillance system for pre-superbugs. Hospitals routinely sample their facilities for resistant bacteria. Collating those genetic data from across the country or around the world could help scientists catch trends in emerging resistance; with that knowledge, medical officials could temporarily restrict certain antibiotics until the trend reverses.
Photomicrograph of Diplococcus pneumoniae, showing capsular swelling as seen in the Neufeld-quellung test for pneumococcus typing. One of the most common organisms causing respiratory infection.
S 11, slide 7; C57582
“The rate of change of genomics is stunning,” Parkhill said. “And I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that there will be point of care sequencing in a short time frame. What that enables us to do is not just ask what antibiotics is this organism resistant to and therefore we shouldn’t use, but also conversely what antibiotics is this organism sensitive to and, therefore, which ones we can use.”
Precision medicine is an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person.
DNA
“It is the role of IT, politicians, healthcare professionals, insurance companies, and society as a whole to work together to make precision medicine the standard of care. Human lives are at stake.”
Recent Comments