Few Non-Academic Hospitals Planning for Precision Medicine

By Lori Solomon, Editor, Diagnostic Testing & Emerging Technologies

Except for academic medical centers, few hospital executives see personalized medicine playing a significant role at their organization, according to a new nationwide survey, conducted by the analytics firm Health Catalyst.

The survey revealed that more than two-thirds (67 percent) of non-academic executives see precision medicine as having no role, a small role, or an average role in their organization in the next five years. By comparison, 71 percent of academic health care executives see precision medicine as playing a “significant” role in their organization in the next five years.

“This survey shows that leaders in academic medicine are already moving to adopt precision medicine, but the rest of healthcare has a lot of catching up to do,” said David Crockett, Ph.D., senior director of research and predictive analytics for Health Catalyst, in a statement. “We live in a remarkable era of information, when all that is known about a person—from family history and genetics to location history and environment—can be balanced against all that is known in the medical domain. This big-picture view of medical decision making can allow providers to focus both prevention and intervention on appropriate individuals, while avoiding unnecessary costs and unwanted side effects for those patients who wouldn’t benefit.”

When asked about the relevance of DNA sequencing to the individual organization’s patient treatment strategies, respondents’ answers again revealed a divide between academic and non-academic institutions. Nearly 100 percent of academic respondents declared DNA sequencing results to be relevant or very relevant to patient treatment strategies, compared to only 39 percent of non-academic center respondents. Not surprisingly, academic centers are more active in making plans to incorporate genomic data into electronic medical records. Nearly two-thirds of academic respondents (64 percent) said such plans were underway, compared to only 29 percent of non-academic respondents.

The online survey was conducted between November and December 2015. The majority of the 60-plus respondents were health care executives including chief information officers, and chief medical officers, data-warehousing and analytics firm Health Catalyst says.

For further discussion of this survey see the Feb. 16, 2016 issue of Laboratory Industry Report.