There is no doubt that the coming decades will bring waves of change for medicine. For many in healthcare, those shifts will focus on the genome and our understanding of its implications on disease dissection and treatment options.
New advancements are occurring at a faster pace than ever before, giving new hope to patients around the world. That's why the October 2014 announcement of a breakthrough partnership between Phoenix Children's Hospital and the Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation, based in Los Angeles, has the potential to fundamentally transform the way pediatric specialists approach treatment protocols.
By combining the operational assets of Phoenix Children's — one of the largest children's hospitals in the country — with the innovative technology of world-renowned surgeon and visionary health leader Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, the new Chan Soon-Shiong Children's Precision Medicine Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital is a pragmatic development towards the future of medicine for children and adults alike.
At the core of this partnership is a commitment to genomic technology and its implications for pediatric medicine. Dr. Soon-Shiong has long underscored the need to drastically improve the timeline for genome sequencing analysis. The technologies that his companies have developed offer significant improvements in analysis and diagnostic methodologies, which lead to faster and more accurate results.
With a dedicated supercomputer for the institute, the ability to collect, analyze and disseminate pediatric patient data will be unprecedented. Sequencing technology and informatics that have historically taken 60 days or more can now be accomplished in seven days. This will immediately impact a young patient whose life depends upon a faster, more precise decision.
The research infrastructure being established at Phoenix Children's will also mark the start of a national pediatric consortium, a hub of genomic medical intelligence that will be available to physicians, researchers and other healthcare professionals around the globe. Shared data and findings will be disseminated across protocols, delivery platforms and disciplines, ensuring that the cumulative information capacity will substantively impact treatments, very nearly in real time.
The budding stage of this revolution in molecular medicine begins at Phoenix Children's, but will have worldwide impact as we develop the largest database of pediatric genomic information in the world, then share that data to encourage state-of- the-art treatments that ultimately extend and save young lives. The Chan Soon-Shiong Children's Precision Medicine Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital, and others like it, will be able to extract more relevant and timely information with each new diagnosis.
Even as the Institute at Phoenix Children's launches, the dedicated members of this new team are looking for ways to streamline processes, build the foundations of this dedicated genomic informatics consortium and integrate a data-driven approach into the day-to-day functionality of the healthcare delivery system.
And while the methods and technology of delivering better healthcare will change as the result, what will not is our patient-centric approach. Great medicine has always been about a deep respect between patient, family and provider to reach the right decision on the best course of action. The Chan Soon-Shiong Children's Precision Medicine Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital was created to augment and facilitate this mission of patient and family focus; but today the process is timelier, the resources more effective and integration across the healthcare community realized.
In early 2015, Phoenix Children's also will begin outreach to other pediatric cancer centers to establish the Pediatric Consortium, which will enable a broad database of genomic data and the sharing of new treatment protocols to benefit all children with cancer. We also plan to expand access to genomic sequencing and precision medicine solutions for children with other genetic-based illnesses.
This is an exciting and historic period for healthcare advancement. As the Children's Precision Medicine Institute moves forward, the team looks forward to engaging with our colleagues to continue the pledge of always making healthcare more personal, more responsive and more successful for the patient.
Robert L. Meyer serves as president and CEO for Phoenix Children's Hospital. Mr. Meyer joined the hospital in 2003, taking over the leadership of current operations and future growth for Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix Children's Medical Group and the Phoenix Children's Hospital Foundation.