Learn how precision medicine can impact health care at Sept. 22 symposium

The Case Western Reserve University Institute for Computational Biology (ICB) will host its inaugural symposium Tuesday, Sept. 22, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Tinkham Veale University Center’s Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Ballroom. The symposium’s topic will be "Present-Day Problems and Potentials for Precision Medicine.” It will highlight emerging topics in precision medicine. Precision or personalized medicine is the incorporation of “omic” data into clinical practice to better predict, prevent and treat disease at the individual level. The recent availability of electronic health records and the affordability of “omic” data generation make precision medicine possible.  However, before precision medicine can be fully and effectively implemented for the benefit of all patients, a host of topics must be explored through the Precision Medicine Initiative and other research efforts. To discuss these emerging issues, the symposium will bring together several leading experts in precision medicine to discuss specific topics, including:

• Use of electronic health records in research settings
• Application of research findings in a clinical setting
• Ethics and health disparities
• Statistical and computational challenges and opportunities

Immediately following the symposium, event organizers will hold a two-hour workshop titled "Putting the Pieces Together: Precision Medicine Discovery from Electronic Health Records." The workshop, co-led by Sarah Pendergrass, research associate at Pennsylvania State University, and Janina Jeff, postdoctoral research fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, will emphasize phenotyping approaches using electronic health records for downstream genetic association and phenome-wide association studies. The symposium is free to attend, but registration is required. To register, visit icompbio.net/.