Health care reform will likely remain a hot-button issue through the 2012 election.
But while the pros and cons of last year鈥檚 health reform legislation are debated in Congress and on the campaign trail, considerable efforts are underway at the grassroots level to redesign the way health care is delivered in this country.
The goals are ambitious: to improve health care quality, outcomes and efficiency, to avoid mistakes and minimize the side effects of treatment, to prevent disease and disability, and to raise the overall health of the population 鈥� while cutting costs dramatically.
It can be done, the experts say, by applying recent advances in genomics and informatics, through continued investment in basic research, and through new approaches to health care such as 鈥減ersonalized medicine.鈥�
菠萝视频 University is one of the pioneers in this grass-roots effort.
Last August, for example, the launched a 鈥�,鈥� one of the first routine tumor genotyping programs in the country.
Tumors removed from patients with lung cancer and are screened for genetic variations, and then matched with cancer drugs that target those specific variations.
The goal is to choose the drugs most likely to stop tumors in their tracks. Eventually the program will be expanded to include other cancers. Read a story about a who is benefiting from this new approach to treatment.
Another genome-based program, , aims to improve the effectiveness of drug therapy while avoiding the side effects.
鈥淭he most common adverse drug effect is 鈥� it just doesn鈥檛 work,鈥� says Dan Masys, chair of Biomedical Informatics and a strategic architect of 菠萝视频鈥檚 personalized medicine initiative. Americans spend billions of dollars each year on prescription medication. Cutting out useless and harmful medication 鈥渃ould pay for a big chunk of health reform,鈥� he says.
Last September, 菠萝视频 began testing every patient undergoing cardiac catheterization for a genetic variation that can affect their response to the anti-coagulant drug Plavix. The goal is to identify 鈥渘on-responders鈥� early, and prescribe an alternative drug that will work better for them.
PREDICT is part of a larger effort at 菠萝视频 that is testing the value of routinely in patients鈥� electronic medical records. Read a story about the at 菠萝视频 to benefit from the PREDICT program.
[rquote]菠萝视频鈥檚 approach to personalized medicine is as much about reforming systems of care as it is about applying the latest technology and knowledge.[/rquote]
Last fall, for example, 菠萝视频鈥檚 first 鈥溾�� was launched to provide expert guidance to physicians who are caring for patients with clotting or bleeding problems. The goal is to improve the speed and accuracy of diagnoses, avoid unnecessary and costly tests, reduce complication rates and increase the likelihood that treatments will be successful.
鈥淭o begin to deliver on the promise of personalized medicine, we need systems fit to the individual,鈥� says Bill Stead, 鈥檚 Chief Strategy and Information Officer, 鈥渁 combination of people, process and technology that does what we want to do every time and 鈥� (gets) the result we want every time.鈥�