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Precision Medicine and Population Health: Dealing With the Elephant in the Room

a elephant in a room with a crowd on one side and doctors on the other side including DNA above on the wall

In this week’s Journal of American Medical Association, we published a point-counterpoint commentary on the impact of precision medicine on population health. Announcement of the news of the US precision medicine initiative has been met with a range of responses from enthusiasm to skepticism about potential benefits, limitations and return on investment. In considering the

Posted on by Muin J. Khoury, Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, and Sandro Galea, Dean, School of Public Health, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts2 CommentsTags

Five Misconceptions About the Role of Genomics in Public Health

5 Misconceptions arrow pointing to 5 and Facts arrow pointing to a hand holding a double helix with a crowd in the background

In a recent post, I reviewed the progress of genomics in public health over the past two decades and pondered on the lingering skepticism about genomics in the public health community. I propose that this skepticism is driven, at least in part, by 5 common misconceptions about the role of genomics in public health. In

Posted on by Muin J Khoury, Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention1 Comment

From Genes to Public Health 1996-2016: The Train Has Left the Station

train leaving the station with DNA

In 1996, a working group from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published an article in the American Journal of Public Health entitled: “From Genes to Public Health: Applications of Genetic Technology in Disease Prevention.” The agency-wide group assessed the implications of the Human Genome Project and related technologies for public health and disease

Posted on by Muin J Khoury, Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and PreventionTags

Precision Public Health: Reconciling Biological and Social Determinants of Health

a mother and child surrounded by DNA and several images of environmental factors

On June 6-7, 2016, I had the honor of participating in the “Precision Public Health” summit hosted by the Gates Foundation and the White House Office of Science and Technology at the University of California in San Francisco. The summit focused on developing a global “precision” agenda to improve health and prevent death and disease

Posted on by Muin J Khoury, Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention1 CommentTags

The Shift From Personalized Medicine to Precision Medicine and Precision Public Health: Words Matter!

crowd with on figure standing out and DNA on the top

Advances in genomics and other ‘omic’ technologies have ushered in a new era variably called “personalized” or “precision” medicine, which takes into account individual genetic and other sources of variability in disease treatment and prevention. In the past decade, we have seen a significant growth in interest and usage of the terms personalized and precision

Posted on by Muin J Khoury, Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention1 Comment

Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing and Public Health Education

a woman looking at her spit in a test tube, sequencing wrapped around a hand, a person looking at double helix on a monitor, a person discussion her genetic test results with a counslor and a crowd of people

We have previously blogged about the value (or lack thereof) of direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests in improving health. In a 2011 blog entitled “think before you spit” we cautioned that there was very little evidence that the use of such tests improves health and prevents disease for healthy people in the population. The blog was

Posted on by Muin J Khoury, Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and PreventionTags , , ,

Public Health Genomics 2015: Looking Back, Looking Ahead

2015 - the 0 has DNA on it and a 6 is sliding down - people in the foreground

In 2015, the United States launched the precision medicine initiative that includes a cancer component and a national cohort research study of one million or more people. While much of this initiative will take years to develop outputs for use in health care, a public health perspective is crucial to ensure the initiative’s success in

Posted on by Muin J Khoury, Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and PreventionTags

National Family History Day 2015: Thinking globally and acting locally

Multi Generation Family Celebrating Thanksgiving

Though you probably will not find greeting cards in stores celebrating this fact, Thanksgiving has been known as National Family History Day in the U.S. since 2004.  The Office of the U.S. Surgeon General and many federal, state and private partners have marked each year with events and announcements promoting the collection and use of family

Posted on by W. Gregory Feero, MD, PhD, Maine Dartmouth Family Medicine ResidencyTags , ,

Engaging Implementation Scientists in Precision Medicine

figures connected by lines and DNA

From the State of the Union through a number of NIH-led workshops to a report from the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director [PDF 1.05 MB], and the recently launched NIH funding announcements,  the Precision Medicine Initiative has the potential to reimagine how we can use information on our biology, our environment, our experiences, our

Posted on by David A. Chambers, D.Phil., Deputy Director for Implementation Science, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer InstituteTags ,

Dealing with the Genomics and Health Information Overload: Introducing the CDC Public Health Genomics Knowledge Base

home page of the PHGkb database

Understanding genetic information is increasingly becoming important for health decision making for a variety of health conditions across the lifespan. The amount of genome-related information is growing exponentially, but it is scattered all over the web, peer-reviewed literature, and public and private databases. The CDC Office of Public Health Genomics has launched the beta version

Posted on by Muin J. Khoury and Wei Yu, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and PreventionTags , , , ,