OSU: Personalized Health Care Answer to Health Care Crisis

COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — As the Obama administration takes its first actions toward health care reform, there are signs that the federal government is increasingly invested in the importance of personalized health care in controlling health care costs and improving care outcomes – conclusions found in The Ohio State University Medical Center‘s recently released position paper, Lessons for the future of personalized health care.

Dr. Clay Marsh, vice chair for research in the department of internal medicine at OSU Medical Center, says the government outlook on personalized, genetically-based health care is coming in line with the stance already held by leading academic medical centers and public and private research institutions, including Ohio State.

“The government is realizing we have to change now from a disease-treatment to a disease-prevention health care system,” says Marsh, author of Ohio State‘s position paper. “Ohio State has been advocating the same message through the Center for Personalized Health Care and our partnerships with research institutions around the world.”

Ohio State elevated its involvement in the personalized health care dialogue in October 2008 by hosting the Personalized Health Care National Conference assembling representatives from academic and private research, the federal government, and pharmaceutical and insurance companies.

“It’s not enough to better understand how genes impact treatment and prevention at the individual level,” Marsh said. “These advances in understanding are meaningless if they don’t translate to a better health care system.”

The federal government is making real progress, according to Dr. Steven Gabbe, CEO of OSU Medical Center. Gabbe cited the $1.1 billion allocated for “comparative effectiveness research” in the recently approved stimulus bill as proof the government is committed to pursuing treatment and care models that work the best.

“Personalized health care is little known to the general public right now, but soon will dominate the practice of health care across all sectors,” Gabbe says. “Now that tailoring treatment based on specific genetic characteristics is possible, personalized health care will continue gains until it simply becomes the way medicine is practiced.”

For more information about personalized health care at Ohio State, including access to its position paper, visit: http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/research/translational_research/cphc/Pages/index.aspx.

SOURCE The Ohio State University Medical Center