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A new effort to create tailor-made medicine for patients around the U.S. is getting a boost from a $215-million presidential initiative. It’s an ambitious undertaking fraught with concerns about patient privacy, funding and how such data would be stored. But because it’s such an innovative idea, there are few blueprints to work with.
The broad federal effort, first announced during Pres. Barack Obama’s State of the Union address and then fleshed out with a few more details and a presidential East Room address last week, would create a personal health care information database of more than a million individuals. In addition to patient histories the endeavor would include genetic data and information from devices like wearable health monitors, and the collection of bacteria, fungi and viruses in and on the body called the microbiome.
Armed with reams of such data scientists hope they could one day offer more personalized medical care, or precision medicine, that would differ from person to person based on their unique genetic makeups and other factors. The end result of the initiative, according to Obama, will...
The broad federal effort, first announced during Pres. Barack Obama’s State of the Union address and then fleshed out with a few more details and a presidential East Room address last week, would create a personal health care information database of more than a million individuals. In addition to patient histories the endeavor would include genetic data and information from devices like wearable health monitors, and the collection of bacteria, fungi and viruses in and on the body called the microbiome.
Armed with reams of such data scientists hope they could one day offer more personalized medical care, or precision medicine, that would differ from person to person based on their unique genetic makeups and other factors. The end result of the initiative, according to Obama, will...