The goal of precision medicine is to tailor treatments to each patient's genes, but these techniques only work if scientists have studied people who are genetically similar, writes Rob Arthur, PhD, for FiveThirtyEight.
Precision medicine is based around the theory genes can be linked to diseases — and since each person has their own set of genetic characteristics, researchers should be able to offer individualized treatments based on their genetic makeup.
"But precision medicine only works if scientists have studied people who are similar to you," Dr. Arthur writes, noting if research is focused exclusively on one ethnic group, scientists may not know how to refine their treatments for a diverse population. "If your genes are rare or unusual compared to those researchers have examined in the past, you could end up getting the wrong treatment."
This consideration poses an issue, since the majority of genomics research investigates people of European ancestry, creating a problem related to representation. Dr. Arthur writes, "members of other racial groups may lose out on the benefits of precision medicine entirely."
These disparities in biomedical research will likely exacerbate racial disparities in healthcare, if genetic differences that affect racial minorities continue to go unstudied. Importantly, African-Americans and Latinos are most likely to suffer from chronic diseases, despite the lack of research on these populations.
"The imbalance in samples is so severe, and the rush to develop precision medicine is so swift, that the problem may not be solved before treatments are developed, and as a result, those treatments will likely predominantly help people of European ancestry," Dr. Arthur writes.
There are recent efforts to address underrepresentation in genomics. For example, the Human Heredity and Health in Africa initiative, which seeks to bring genomics studies to African populations, as well as the National Institutes of Health's Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology Consortium, which looks at non-European populations in the U.S.
"We are aware of this situation, and work is being funded to rectify the situation," Charles Rotimi, a NIH investigator, told FiveThirtyEight.
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