How precision medicine is radically improving health care
Orion Health releases precision medicine report
Orion Health releases precision medicine report
London 21st March 2016 - Do you have the cheating gene? Are you looking after your stomach bugs? Did your father suffer famine before puberty? The answer to these questions could change – even save –your life with the advent of precision medicine.
Orion Health has released a report ‘Introducing Precision Medicine’, about the practice of enabling personalised health care by capturing and analysing all the information that is relevant to maintaining a consumer’s wellbeing.
“Only 10% of an individual’s health is determined by their medical history, but currently that is all the information a doctor has access to,” said Orion Health CEO Ian McCrae.
“More significant is the person’s genetic makeup which determines 30% of his or her health outcome. Information from ‘exogenous sources’, that is a person’s diet, living and social circumstances determines 60%. In total, 90% of the information required for specific, individual treatment is not being captured today, but that is changing rapidly with the introduction of precision medicine.”
McCrae said there is a growing body of international research that is identifying and enabling the capture of data that is vital for the practice of precision medicine. The report considers four keys areas:
McCrae said that precision medicine – with its focus on keeping people healthy and out of hospital for as long as possible – makes good economic sense.
“As governments around the world grapple with the rising cost of healthcare driven by an ageing population, they are realising the importance of precision medicine. U.S. President Barak Obama has launched the Precision Medicine Initiative, while in Britain they have begun the 100,000 Genomes Project,” Mr McCrae said.
In New Zealand Orion Health have announced the Precision Driven Health research programme, a $38 million public-private venture in conjunction with Waitemata District Health Board and the University of Auckland, and with support from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
Colin Henderson, country manager, Orion Health UK and Ireland commented: “In the UK the shift from a ‘one size fits all’ approach to personalised medicine is already on the way through various initiatives such as Genomics England. We are on the cusp of a medical revolution, which will be underpinned by data. Health information sytems are essential to processing this data to enable this revolution to happen”.
To find out more about precision medicine, download a copy of the report here.
Colin Henderson will be speaking about precision medicine and how it is enabled by health information systems at the eHealthWeek conference in London on 19th/20th April.
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