For more general information, visit the White House page on the Precision Medicine Initiative
For more details about precision medicine at the University of Utah, watch this video from the 2015 Precision Medicine Symposium: Outlive Your Family History
In January of 2015, The White House announced the Precision Medicine Initiative. Precision Medicine is an approach to medical care that focuses on diagnostic, prevention, and treatment strategies tailored to the individual. Individualized approaches to medicine are not new: think blood typing. Rather, the initiative aims to expand on practices and approaches that have been implemented on a small scale at research institutions around the world-institutions like the University of Utah.
Decades before the Precision Medicine Initiative, the University of Utah began investing heavily in genetics research. Leveraged by Utah's large families, culture of participation, and value of recordkeeping, local research efforts have discovered the genes behind dozens of inherited diseases and medical conditions. University of Utah researchers have also developed tools and expertise for bringing this genomic knowledge into the clinic and improving the lives of patients.
Multiple small-scale projects have shown that current approaches to discovery work. Today, the University of Utah is uniquely positioned to put precision medicine into practice on a larger scale.
To learn more about the impact the State of Utah has had on genetic research, visit Genetics in Utah