President Obama has announced a new initiative that aims to improve medical treatments for many diseases by tailoring treatments to a patient’s unique genetic makeup.
During his Jan. 20 State of the Union address, the president unveiled the Precision Medicine Initiative, a plan to increase physicians’ ability to take a patient’s individual genetic makeup and molecular subtypes of diseases into account to improve the chances of successful treatment.
President Obama's Precision Medicine Initiative aims to increase physicians’ ability to take a patient’s individual genetic makeup and molecular subtypes of diseases into account during treatment.
“I want the country that eliminated polio and mapped the human genome to lead a new era of medicine – one that delivers the right treatment at the right time,” President Obama said in his speech. “In some patients with cystic fibrosis, this approach has reversed a disease once thought unstoppable. Tonight, I’m launching a new Precision Medicine Initiative to bring us closer to curing diseases like cancer and diabetes – and to give all of us access to the personalized information we need to keep ourselves and our families healthier.”
“Physicians have been at the forefront of accelerating genomic discoveries and rapidly driving these innovations into daily clinical practice,” said Dr. Robert M. Wah, president of the American Medical Association. “We believe that all of the Administration’s policies should advance and build on the incredible progress that physicians are making to apply genetic and genomic breakthroughs into clinical decision-making and health promotion that can ease substantial disease burden and cost in this country.”
American College of Cardiology President Patrick T. O’Gara called the announcement an important step for continuing medical progress.
“Incredible advances have already been made in cardiovascular research, and I hope initiatives like this will lead to even more important discoveries, treatments, and cures that can be directed to patients more quickly,” Dr. O’Gara said in a statement. “The promise of precision medicine is within our grasp.”