Ernesto Ramirez

January 30, 2015

This morning President Barack Obama announced a new Precision Medicine Initiative, a key $215 million piece of the proposed 2016 budget. Much has been written since last week’s State of the Union, when this initiative was first mentioned by President Obama. In brief, the initiative is an investment in new programs and funding initiatives at major government bodies that influence the current and future health of all Americans, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). These programs will focus on developing “a new model of patient-powered research that promises to accelerate biomedical discoveries and provide clinicians with new tools, knowledge, and therapies to select which treatments will work best for which patients.”

There is a lot of information being circulated about this new initiative, and we’ve collected some links below, but we’d like to highlight something directly related to our interests in self-tracking data, personal data access, and new models of participatory research. In this morning’s announcement President Obama mentioned a long-term goal of creating a participatory research cohort comprised of 1 million volunteers who will be called upon to share personal medical record data, genetic samples, biological samples, and diet and lifestyle information. This is truly an ambitious goal and we are happy to see the President take care to mention the importance of including patients and the individuals who collect this data in the decision making and research process. For example, here is the description of this specific program from the NIH Precision Medicine Infographic

Here at QS Labs, we’re dedicated to helping create and grow a culture that enables everyone to generate personal meaning from their personal data. Sharing, participation, and exploring new models of discovery are a core themes we’re exploring as part of our QS Access work. We’ll be following this initiative as it moves from today’s announcement to tomorrow’s reality. Be sure to stay tuned to our QS Access Channel for more updates as we learn more.

Learn more about the Precision Medicine Initiative
NIH mini site describing the initiative
White House Blog: The Precision Medicine Initiative: Data-Driven Treatments as Unique as Your Own Body
FACT SHEET: President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative
A New Initiative on Precision Medicine by Francis Collins and Harold Varmus (New England Journal of Medicine).