The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), a global initiative of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development recently announced that a ‘Precision Medicine’ forum will be presented during its 2016 conference in November.

Precision medicine (PM) tailors healthcare to account for variables in each patient’s genes, environment, lifestyle, and other factors. It represents the cutting-edge of treatment and policy, in contrast to the one-size-fits-all approaches of the past.

Prof Victor Dzau, president of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences will chair the forum.

‘The field of precision medicine is rapidly advancing and will have a major impact on the practice of medicine. However, scientific and technological progress does not guarantee that the benefits of PM will reach the general public. Furthermore, there is concern that PM will only increase complexity, drive up costs, and increase inequity,’ Dzau said.

‘In order to maximise the impact of PM, every PM innovation must provide evidence it will lower costs and improve outcomes and is better than the current standard of care. This requires health outcomes and economic analysis both short and long term. Regulatory and payment frameworks should be developed to evaluate and incentivise cost-effective PM innovations.’

The WISH report will recommend how PM can be implemented based on the expertise of those at the forefront of its practice and development. The crucial measurable results for PM - patient outcomes and lowered costs - will be discussed, as well as how those can be incentivised within healthcare systems.

The report will address the benefits of cross-referencing relevant data. Properly analysing the full breadth of information gathered by health systems has produced unexpected advances in both practice and policy. Guided by the principles of PM, developing the collection and analysis of such data could reveal even better methods to improve healthcare.

In addition, the report will delve into the ever-present legal, ethical, and social concerns surrounding data collection, and will suggest how PM can be supported and funded at the system level, leveraging public-private partnerships to create sustainable, effective change.

Egbert Schillings, CEO of WISH, said: ‘Traditional medical care has leveraged a one-size-fits-all approach to delivering health. However, with personal genome sequencing costing less than $1,000 and continuous advancements in technology, precision medicine is becoming a primary area of innovation. The WISH Precision Medicine forum report draws upon some of the best minds in modern healthcare to show how health systems can help deliver on that promise faster for the benefit of their populations.’