President Crow hosts panel on future of genomic medicine

Arizona State University President Michael Crow hosted a panel on genomic medicine last week in Washington, D.C., that featured renowned experts in the advancing medical field. The event took place at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The talk focused on the growing ability to reduce genome analysis from months to minutes, with a new patient being treated by a physician every 47 seconds. Advances in genomic analysis are now leading to an era of personalized medicine where each person is treated according to their genomic profile.

Attendees such as Patrick Soon-Shiong, chairman of the Soon-Shiong Family Foundation and the chairman of NantHealth; Paul Markovich, president and ceo of Blue Shiel of California; Geeta Nayya, chief medical information officer of AT&T and Lou Lazatin, president and ceo of John Wayne Cancer Institute shared their views about technological advancements being made to bring these “supercomputers” into clinical practice.

Through the secure transmission of data at incredible speeds, capabilities like 8-way video conferencing and the streaming of 4-d images, physicians are now able to provide community members with links to major cancer centers across the U.S. – seemingly unheard of before this began in its early stages in 2010.

Forum topics further included improving healthcare quality and reducing associated patient costs, improving the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and implementing genomic and informatics into these practices.

With more than 1.6 million newly diagnosed cancer patients every year and an additional 13 million cancer survivors in the United States, finding solutions to these topics using personalized medicine was a priority for all in attendance. Panelists were confident that the new technology that saves millions of dollars in waste and does not cost doctors extra to use, is the way of the future.