–Some black Americans were wrongly told they had a high risk for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Precision medicine offers the promise of an accurate assessment of individual risk for serious conditions like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). But a new report published in the New England Journal of Medicine,” which the authors describe as “a cautionary tale of broad…
New Evidence Fitness Trackers Don’t Actually Track Fitness
March 21, 2016 by Leave a Comment
–Little agreement found when 12 wearable devices were compared to gold standards Fitness trackers have not been found to help people improve the way they exercise, an article in the Sunday New York Times noted in a summary of the case against wearable fitness trackers, pointing up technical and even philosophical limitations of the devices….
Confusion In The Age Of Genetic Information
March 15, 2016 by Leave a Comment
(Updated)– We may live in the age of information but we really have no idea how to use all that information, especially when it comes to health. One new study, published in the BMJ, is a good illustration of this principle. “There are high expectations that advances in genetics will usher in a new era…
Precision Medicine, Stuck In Second Grade, Flunks Test Of Clinical Utility
January 5, 2016 by 4 Comments
One of the great scientific achievements of the past generation has been the identification and characterization of the genetic underpinnings for many diseases. By combining genetic information with other forms of research doctors have been able to reach a much deeper understanding of many diseases. In a few cases genetic information has proved useful in screening…
It’s Complicated! Large Genetic Study Of Coronary Disease Shows How Much We Don’t Know
September 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment
We still have a very long way to go before we understand the genetic underpinnings of coronary artery disease, according to the largest and most comprehensive study in the field performed to date. In a series of tweets Sekar Kathiresan, a co-leader of the study, summarized the meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies, which was published in Nature Genetics: Our…
Prominent Harvard Cardiologist Moves To Google X To Head Large Study
May 11, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Here’s a clear sign of the ascending role of digital/precision/personalized medicine: a prominent cardiologist has left a top academic and clinical position in Boston to run a large, innovative study in Silicon Valley. Jessica Mega was widely perceived as a rising star at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She has now joined Google X, Google’s research arm,…
Precision Medicine Approaches Peak Hype
May 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment
No, Personalized Medicine Isn’t Going To Save $600 Billion Over 50 Years By Preventing Heart Disease The hype over personalized medicine has now reached astonishing new heights. In an article published in the Lancet, Victor Dzau, the new president of the Institute of Medicine, and coauthors write that personalized and precision medicine (PPM) could deliver hundreds of billions of dollars worth…
Can Precision Medicine Do Better Than Precision Weather?
January 27, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Looking out of my New York City window this morning at the meager 6 inches of snow on the ground I can’t help wondering if precision medicine in the foreseeable future will be able to do a better job than precision weather forecasting today. … Click here to read the full post on Forbes. …
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