WHAT: You are invited to attend a discussion between experts from Johns Hopkins Medicine, the nonprofit Cancer Commons and tech giant Microsoft. They’ll discuss the challenges of cost, access and big data as health care institutions race to implement precision medicine.

What is precision medicine? It’s the practice of tailoring specific treatments to individual patients. Sometimes this involves making connections between a patient’s distinct genetic code and treatments that target that code, but it also takes into account a patient’s environment and lifestyle. Rather than the typical approach of prescribing treatments based on averages among patient populations, precision medicine has been the rallying cry of health care experts longing for better ways to match patients with customized care.

Yet, the benefits of precision medicine have been slow to reach underrepresented groups and many physicians in private practices. Costs of precision approaches to clinical care are still too high for our overburdened health care system, and current medical privacy and research rules have not evolved to allow collection of vast amounts of real-time data on large patient populations. 

Join us for a discussion on these and other challenges facing precision medicine at the 2018 Precision Medicine World Conference.

WHEN:
Monday, Jan. 22
10-11:30 a.m. PST

WHERE:
2018 Precision Medicine World Conference
Computer History Museum, Room 3
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA

WHO:

Discussion Moderator
Kenneth J. Pienta, M.D.
The Donald S. Coffey Professor of Urology and professor of oncology
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Director of Research, Brady Urological Institute
Co-leader of the Prostate Cancer Program, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center

Participants

Kevin Knopf M.D., M.P.H.
Health Economist and Health Services researcher, Sutter Health
Medical Director, Cancer Commons

Simon Kos, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer and Senior Director, Worldwide Health, Microsoft

Aalok Shah
Director of Product Management
Johns Hopkins inHealth Precision Medicine Initiative

REGISTER:

To attend this event, please send your press credentials to Marin Hedin ([email protected]) and Vanessa Wasta ([email protected]). Freelance journalists should send a recent bylined article from a traditional news organization.

In addition to the Precision Medicine press event, the meeting organizers will offer 30 credentialed journalists complimentary registration to attend all other open sessions at the 2018 Precision Medicine World Conference.