Health IT could power era of personalized medicine

Health information technology has the power to drive advances in personalized medicine that will offer better-targeted treatments – and save the health system money – according to a new report from the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings.

Industry leaders are set to discuss the implications at a conference at Brookings. With federal officials pursuing the goal of a personal human genome map under $1,000 in five years it is possible to envision a future where treatments are tailored to individuals' genetic structures, prescriptions are analyzed in advance for likely effectiveness, and researchers study clinical data in real-time to learn what works, wrote Darrell West in the executive summary. West Is the founding director of the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings. "Implementation of these regimens creates a situation where treatments are better targeted, health systems save money by identifying therapies not likely to be effective for particular people, and researchers have a better understanding of comparative effectiveness," he adds, citing the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology 2010.