The (Near) Future of Precision Medicine
It’s the holiday season — which means that gift giving is in full swing, and we all know giving is one of those exchanges that can go really wrong or really right.
There are a couple of ways it can go right. You graciously ask the receiver what they want, and you get it for them. Simple, but not really thoughtful or exciting.
The other, more interesting one, is the path you take that is characterized by a higher risk/reward ratio. If you’re smart, you’re always scheming throughout the year (that is, if you care enough) to see what the wants and needs of this special person are. This will definitely reduce your risk of giving a bad gift. BUT. There is always a but, you can also get the gift totally wrong. You got a pink shirt instead of a blue one. You thought you got the right book, but, nope you didn’t.
Much like a personalized gift, personalized medicine is a place where high risk/reward can occur. As a society, we are transitioning from giving the ‘go-to gift-card’ to an upgraded ‘diamond necklace’. Or, in other words, giving a patient a well-known drug that might work versus a new clinically tested drug built for a specific mutation fueled molecular pathway that drove the patient’s disease.
If the treatment goes well, hot damn, you did a great job taking advantage of the newest technology and potentially gave a patient more years to their life. If the treatment does not go well, well then you probably were better off giving the former drug. With time and ongoing innovation, personalized medicine will improve to provide better medical solutions on the individual level.
Just to back up a little. Let’s define precision medicine. According to the National Institutes of Health,
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.
Genes. Environment. Lifestyle.
Sounds like a lot of data and interacting variables! Now let’s dig into what the near-future for precision medicine will be like.
The Near-Future
Precision medicine will be evolving quickly as new technologies become widely adopted. Clinicians, patients and Information Technology personnel will need to prepare and to stay informed.
“The changes are happening so quickly,” said India Hook-Barnard, Associate Director of Precision Medicine at University of California San Francisco. “I think the world is going to be a very different place in five years.”
The Physician
At the NorthShore University HealthSystem, physicians are working closely with genetic data interwoven within their EHR system to enhance the clinical work flow system at the hospital.
For example, patients may be given a genetic test before an appointment that evaluates and identifies any genes that may pose a problem with certain drugs. This data and information will be at the fingertips of the physicians, which may empower the physician to choose a more informed and personalized approach for the patient.
Throughout the world, physicians will be apt to make data-driven decisions in a real-time fashion. This new approach to providing care will be interesting to watch as more technology will be in our doctor’s tool-belts. As technology adoption comes closer to reality, the ways physicians and patients used to interact will also change.
The Patient
The patient will be the end-user or consumer of this technology, which makes it very, very important to understand what works and what does not. In the years to come, there will be a lot of research that will go into what data is scientifically valuable and positively life-changing and what data is junk.
No doubt, the health consumer will be more empowered with their incoming data. That being said, a new type of conversation may pop up between physicians and their patients. The patients will need help interpreting their genetic results, understanding what data is actionable and not, and making sense of clinical decisions.
As bioinformaticians, it is imperative to keep in mind the patient’s needs, wants, what emotions they may feel when they see their data, and the overall presentation. The patient’s input and the way they interact with technology is important to understand.
The Data Scientist
The data scientist and bioinformatician has the power to put the plethora of patient data in the palms of the physician. With this responsibility, many features will become paramount.
- EHR interaction and usability.
- Proper and intuitive data dashboards.
- Recommended actions that are sensible and quick.
On top of that, much like the patient-physician relationship, there will be a increasing need to develop working physician-IT relationships since the doctors will be the end user.
Moreover, bioinformaticians will need to keep up with cutting edge technologies that their job can use. According to Bryce Olson, Global Marketing Director, Health and Life Sciences, Intel Corporation:
Biomedical insights and life-saving discoveries are happening because of the explosion of data made possible through lower-cost genomics sequencing and technological advancements.
Pretty soon, hospital data scientists will need to effectively leverage new genetic tools while keeping in mind that more does not necessarily mean better.
The physician, patient and bioinformatician will soon be intermingled and deeply connected in this new era of precision medicine. As with many other technologies, it is a tool. As providers and receivers of healthcare, it is important to understand the power and limitations of the tools at our disposal.
