How Precision Medicine is Radically Improving Health Care

Orion HealthDo 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:

  • Genome mapping - finding out all the genetic material present in a human cell. That's the information which determines the colour of your eyes, or hair, or how susceptible you may be to certain diseases. It can also, according to a Swedish study, determine if you have the genetic variation that makes you more susceptible to cheating on your partner.
  • It looks at the 100 trillion bugs that exist in our bodies and which are collectively known as the Human Microbiome. They outnumber human cells by a least three to one, but medical science is finding that they can be immensely beneficial, especially the bugs that reside in our stomachs.
  • The report discusses Epigenetics, which is how your genetic make-up can be altered by external events that are experienced by your parents and grandparents. In one study it was found that men whose grandfather's experienced famine before they reached puberty were less likely to develop heart disease or diabetes.
  • Lastly, there is the role of fitness apps and devices in contributing to a consumer’s ongoing wellness. Information from the apps that track fitness and sleep patterns will soon feed directly into an electronic patient record, and provide doctors with a richer understanding of an individual’s health and wellbeing.

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.

Related news articles:

About Orion Health
Orion Health (NZX:OHE) is a technology company that provides solutions which enable healthcare to over 90 million patients in more than 25 countries. Its open technology platform seamlessly integrates all forms of relevant data to enable population and personalised healthcare around the world. The company employs over 1200 people globally and is committed to continual innovation, investing over 30% of total operating revenue year to date in research and development, to cement its position at the forefront of Precision Medicine.

Most Popular Now

Philips and Medtronic Advocacy Partnersh…

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, and Medtronic Neurovascular, a leading innovator in neurovascular therapies, today announced a strategic advocacy partnership. Delivering timely stroke...

New AI Tool Predicts Protein-Protein Int…

Scientists from Cleveland Clinic and Cornell University have designed a publicly-available software and web database to break down barriers to identifying key protein-protein interactions to treat with medication. The computational tool...

AI for Real-Rime, Patient-Focused Insigh…

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but still... they both have a lot of work to do to catch up to BiomedGPT. Covered recently in the prestigious journal Nature...

New Research Shows Promise and Limitatio…

Published in JAMA Network Open, a collaborative team of researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical School, Stanford University, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the University of Virginia studied...

G-Cloud 14 Makes it Easier for NHS to Bu…

NHS organisations will be able to save valuable time and resource in the procurement of technologies that can make a significant difference to patient experience, in the latest iteration of...

Start-Ups will Once Again Have a Starrin…

11 - 14 November 2024, Düsseldorf, Germany. The finalists in the 16th Healthcare Innovation World Cup and the 13th MEDICA START-UP COMPETITION have advanced from around 550 candidates based in 62...

Hampshire Emergency Departments Digitise…

Emergency departments in three hospitals across Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have deployed Alcidion's Miya Emergency, digitising paper processes, saving clinical teams time, automating tasks, and providing trust-wide visibility of...

MEDICA HEALTH IT FORUM: Success in Maste…

11 - 14 November 2024, Düsseldorf, Germany. How can innovations help to master the great challenges and demands with which healthcare is confronted across international borders? This central question will be...

A "Chemical ChatGPT" for New M…

Researchers from the University of Bonn have trained an AI process to predict potential active ingredients with special properties. Therefore, they derived a chemical language model - a kind of...

Siemens Healthineers co-leads EU Project…

Siemens Healthineers is joining forces with more than 20 industry and public partners, including seven leading stroke hospitals, to improve stroke management for patients all over Europe. With a total...

MEDICA and COMPAMED 2024: Shining a Ligh…

11 - 14 November 2024, Düsseldorf, Germany. Christian Grosser, Director Health & Medical Technologies, is looking forward to events getting under way: "From next Monday to Thursday, we will once again...

In 10 Seconds, an AI Model Detects Cance…

Researchers have developed an AI powered model that - in 10 seconds - can determine during surgery if any part of a cancerous brain tumor that could be removed remains...