Federal Health Chief Touts Personalized Medicine
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on Thursday at a Harvard Medical School conference said personalized medicine is necessary to help transform the health care system into one that promotes value, rather than volume, the Boston Globe reports.
According to Leavitt, the Human Genome Project and related research efforts can deliver on the promise of personalized medicine only through a transformation of the health care system to one that promotes improved care for patients, rather than more care for more patients. He said that the health care system should focus on four areas: electronic health records, standardized measures of quality, transparency of prices and incentives to promote higher-quality, lower-cost care.
"I am persuaded that personalized health care creates value," Leavitt said, adding, "The goal is to have better health care at lower cost for every American" (Cooney, Boston Globe, 11/29).