Public Ahead of Providers in Support for Personalized Medicine

Levels of public support for personalized medicine (PM) are seemingly outpacing organizational plans to implement PM-based clinical strategies, based on the results of two recently released surveys. Public support for personalized medicine research is high and the majority would be willing to participate in federal research, if asked, according to a study published Aug. 17 in PLoS ONE. The survey was conducted as part of an early effort to understand the preferences of potential participants of the White House’s Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI). The survey results were incorporated into recommendations for the design of the study. The PMI Cohort Program aims to enroll 1 million U.S. participants willing to share long-term, prospective data about their health and lifestyle, including genetic information, to build a national resource for researchers. To be useful, data must be collected from a broad base of participants. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) anticipates launching initial phases of the cohort later this year. The survey was conducted to gauge support for PMI, to measure acceptability of design features, and to identify public concerns. Incorporating these findings into the study’s design, and other participant engagement efforts, are intended to help build an inclusive and trusting cohort. Survey […]