In the 2015 State of the Union address in January, President Obama introduced the Precision Medicine Initiative, a push toward genomic medicine and individualized treatment for patients.
Now, the White house has released updated, patient-focused "commitments" to foster the development and growth of this initiative.
Here are the three new commitments.
1. Guiding principles for protecting privacy and building trust: Through a new set of guiding principles, the White House seeks to incorporate privacy safeguards into the design of the Precision Medicine Research cohort. The White House's guiding principles are open for public comment through Aug. 7, 2015.
2. New tools for patients: ONC and HHS' Office for Civil Rights are collaborating on efforts to eliminate barriers patients face when trying to access health data. OCR will develop educational materials to help patients understand HIPAA laws, and ONC will develop communication tools encouraging individuals to access their digital health information.
3. Research awards: To help discover insights from the vast amounts of collected data, the Department of Veteran Affairs is offering awards to support four research projects focused on the genetic variances and contributions in key diseases.
More articles on genomics:
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Google, Broad Institute zero in on genes to improve healthcare
Amazon vs. Google: The race to win the corner market on DNA storage