Personalized Medicine Gets A Push

Last month, the announcement of aggressive plans to move the Medicare fee-for-service plan to a value-based payment system (see Medicare Bets Big On Pay-For-Value) received lots of media and industry attention. But at the same time, the Obama Administration announced a $215 million “precision medicine” initiative (see President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative). "Precision medicine” in this context is synonymous with “personalized medicine,” – using an individual’s genetic profile to guide decisions made in regard to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease.

The Obama Precision Medicine Initiative, has four components:

$130 million to the . . .