July 27, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State University’s Center for Personalized Health Care is gathering academic leaders, industry experts, government policymakers and healthcare providers from across the country to discuss the latest developments in P4 Medicine, which is a novel approach to individualized medical care that engages consumer participation, predicts and prevents disease, facilitates health, and creates a personalized life strategy wellness plan for each individual.
The Johanna and Ralph DeStefano Personalized Health Care National Conference will be held Oct. 6-7 at the Blackwell Inn, located at 2110 Tuttle Park Place, on the campus of The Ohio State University.
With a theme of “The Future of P4 Medicine and Its Impact on Clinical Care,” attendees will hear from experts about revolutionizing medicine and transforming healthcare delivery in a way which will result in more precise, cost-effective and higher quality health care for patients. Topics will focus on the infrastructure necessary to enable P4 Medicine, applications of genetics and genomics in clinical medicine, the latest breakthroughs in science, patient engagement and the barriers to making P4 Medicine a reality.
“We are leading the way in bringing P4 Medicine to our patients and consumers, and this year’s conference is focusing on its future and its impact on clinical care,” says Dr. Clay Marsh, executive director of OSU’s Center for Personalized Health Care. “Having community visionaries and leaders like Johanna DeStefano support our national conference is a critical factor to bringing P4 Medicine to the community, to reduce costs and improve outcomes of healthcare delivery,” adds Marsh, who is also senior vice president for research in the Office of Health Sciences, and vice dean for research in the College of Medicine.
- Targeted cancer therapies
- Causes and consequences of microRNA dysregulation in cancer
- Novel approaches in the prediction and treatment of cancer
- Preventive medicine and healthcare reform
- Advances in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease
- Community wellness
- Complex and adaptive systems in health care and making the connection to patient engagement and outcomes
- Creating a consumer-focused environment for participatory health care
- Ohio as a center for healthcare reform, from a CEO’s perspective
- P4 Medicine as a framework for value innovation (reducing cost and improving outcomes)
P4 Medicine focuses on creating systems to deliver medicine that focuses on executing key evidence-based practices to reduce healthcare costs and improve outcomes, and it embraces the interface between an individual’s unique DNA, environment and behavior to define their health and disease. P4 Medicine utilizes advances in genomics and molecular diagnostics discoveries to provide predictive information that is necessary to tailor, or personalize, disease management approaches for each individual. Therapeutics and health management tools are being developed to help prevent disease instead of merely treating the symptoms. Medicine of the future is also participatory. Patients will have access to a single portal that electronically stores their medical records and genetic profiles and tools that analyze these data to guide them to precise strategies to promote wellness. In addition, Marsh says that social networking and the power of games will be instrumental to engaging the consumer to taking ownership of their health care.
OSU Medical Center, along with Seattle’s Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), has established a new innovation consortium, P4 Medicine Institute. Together, the Medical Center and ISB are transforming health care away from its current reactive system by combining systems biology research and clinical delivery resources to advance health services for patients with an innovative and proactive approach to disease prediction and prevention. P4 Medicine tailors diagnosis and therapy to the individual consumer and engages patients in an active pursuit of a quantified understanding and maintenance of health and wellness.
The Ohio State University’s Center for Personalized Health Care (CPHC), created in 2005, facilitates and advocates for the creation and practice of healthcare methods based on an individual’s genetic, environmental, behavioral and cultural factors. What results is a tailored approach to wellness, disease prevention and, when required, health care. Personalized health care overarches all OSU Medical Center initiatives.
The CPHC serves as an advocate and facilitator of research, education, prevention and treatments designed to meet patients’ individual needs. Its missions are to create a pipeline for innovation and accelerate the application and dissemination of discovery to realize the promise of personalized health care, and advocate for personalized health care locally, nationally and internationally.
Contact: Sherri Kirk, Center for Personalized Health Care, 614-366-3277, or Sherri.Kirk@osumc.edu