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Mayo Clinic CEO Offers New Vision for Personalized Patient Care

Posted on: Wednesday, 4 March 2009, 07:09 CST

WASHINGTON, March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Denis A. Cortese, M.D., president and CEO of the Mayo Clinic, offered a new vision for personalized healthcare in America at a time when Congress and the administration are discussing changes in the healthcare system.

The Mayo Clinic is committed to implementing personalized medicine for its patients. By targeting specific treatments to individual patients based on an analysis of differences in their molecular makeup, personalized medicine increases the effectiveness and safety of many existing therapies and spurs the creation of new treatments.

Dr. Cortese was introduced by Paul Stoffels, M.D., company group chairman, global pharmaceutical research and development, Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Stoffels said that Johnson & Johnson is committed to a personalized approach to medicine, using its broad expertise in healthcare research and development to develop targeted therapies for major diseases.

The keynote address at the Personalized Medicine Coalition's annual luncheon took place against the backdrop of the Obama Administration's health reform summit, which the president announced last week in his address to Congress. Johnson & Johnson sponsored the luncheon, which was held at the National Press Club.

Dr. Cortese discussed how Mayo Clinic's implementation of personalized medicine works in practice and what it means for Mayo's patients. He emphasized the importance of interoperable computerized patient records and communication among different providers in determining the optimal treatments for individual patients.

"Health information technology plays a huge role in synthesizing large amounts of data, creating knowledge that will drive evidence-based decision making," Dr. Cortese said.

These insights should guide spending for two sums in the economic stimulus package: $19.2 billion for health information technology, and $1.2 billion to compare the effectiveness of different treatments for diseases.

Dr. Stoffels described Johnson & Johnson's commitment to incorporating pharmacogenomics and biomarkers during the drug development process, which allows scientists and researchers to improve outcomes of successful drug candidates while better meeting patient needs. He emphasized that collaboration among industry, academia, providers, and payers has the power to fuel even faster development and implementation of personalized medicine solutions.

"At Johnson & Johnson, patients drive everything we do. Our goal is to use the latest science and technology and a patient-focused mindset to move away from a one size fits all approach to more targeted and personalized therapies," Dr. Stoffels said. "This vision is aligned with Johnson & Johnson's mission to care for the world, one patient at a time. With broad based expertise in healthcare R&D, we are uniquely positioned to lead the development and application of personalized solutions for major disease states."

About the Personalized Medicine Coalition

The Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC), representing a broad spectrum of academic, industrial, patient, provider, and payer communities, seeks to advance the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts and products for the benefit of patients. For more information on the Personalized Medicine Coalition, please visit http://www.PersonalizedMedicineCoalition.org.

About the Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy that "the needs of the patient come first." More than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers and 41,000 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in Rochester, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, the three locations treat more than half a million patients each year.

About Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, L.L.C.

Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, L.L.C. (J&JPRD) is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, the world's most broadly-based producer of health care products. J&JPRD is headquartered in Raritan, N.J., and has facilities throughout Europe, the United States and Asia. J&JPRD is leveraging drug discovery and drug development in a variety of therapeutic areas, including CNS, Pain, Cardiovascular, Metabolic, and Infectious Diseases, to address unmet medical needs worldwide. More information can be found at http://www.jnjpharmarnd.com.

SOURCE Personalized Medicine Coalition

Source: PR Newswire

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