Geisinger selected to join medical study
Geisinger Health System has been named as one of four new healthcare provider organizations to participate in the Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program to help build a nationwide million-person strong study.
Geisinger will serve as an enrollment center. The goal of the four centers is to get a diverse group of 1 million or more people to participate. The purpose is to improve the medical community's ability to prevent and treat disease based on individual differences in lifestyle, environment and genetics. Combined, the four provider organizations will receive $5.5 million to begin recruitment and build infrastructure. As efforts advance, the centers may receive first-year funds of up to $16 million.
The Precision Medicine Initiative was launched by President Barack Obama in 2015 "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."
People participating in the PMI Cohort will donate biospecimens - for example blood or saliva - and then fill out enrollment surveys, undergo a standardized physical evaluation and commit to sharing their electronic health records with researchers.
"This is truly the creation of anticipatory medicine that will allow us to treat patients before they get sick and help prevent and treat life-threatening diseases before they take hold. Precision medicine is a game-changer in health care, and we are excited to be at the forefront," said Geisinger President and Chief Executive Officer David T. Feinberg.
In 2007, Geisinger launched its own study and already has more than 120,000 participants enrolled in its MyCode Community Health Initiative. MyCode includes a system-wide biobank designed to store blood and other samples used by researchers to help develop optimal treatments tailored to the individual needs of Geisinger patients. Patients already participating in MyCode will be able to enroll in the PMI program.
"Large quantities of data are needed to reap the most rewards from precision medicine research," said Marylyn D. Ritchie, chair of the Department of Biomedical and Translational Informatics at Geisinger and informatics specialist. "Part of Geisinger's work, in addition to helping collect this data, will be to help the NIH combine and analyze the data. One of the unique things about the PMI Cohort Program data is that it will be available for all researchers and citizen scientists, with applicable security and privacy protections."
