Personalized Health Care as a Pathway for the Adoption of Genomic Medicine

While the full promise of genomic medicine may be many years in the future, personalized health care (PHC) can begin solving important health care needs now and provide a framework for the adoption of genomic technologies as they are validated. PHC is a strategic approach to medicine that is individualized, predictive, preventive, and involves intense patient engagement. There is great need for more effective models of care as nearly half of Medicare patients age 65 and older have three or more preventable chronic conditions and account for 89% of Medicare's growing expenditures. With its focus on reactive care, the current health care system is not designed to effectively prevent disease nor manage patients with multiple chronic conditions. PHC may be a solution for improving care for this population and therefore has been adopted as the delivery platform along with a new personalized health plan tool for 230 multi-morbid, homebound Medicare recipients in Durham, North Carolina who have been high utilizers of health care resources. PHC integrates available personalized health technologies, standards of care, and personalized health planning to serve as a model for rational health care delivery. Importantly, the PHC model of care will serve as a market for emerging predictive and personalized technologies to foster genomic medicine.