ABSTRACT
Precision medicine came into the national spotlight in 2015, when President Barack Obama announced the launch of the Precision Medicine Initiative in his final State of the Union address. The clinical community’s definition of, and approach to, precision medicine has focused almost exclusively on genetics, whereas the biomedical research community has taken a more expansive approach to precision medicine. The terms precision medicine and personalized medicine are often used synonymously, though precision medicine is the newer term. Personalized medicine is an aspirational and anticipatory term that was coined and discussed before any widespread shifts in medical practice had occurred. Precision medicine efforts also raise concerns about data privacy and security, data sharing, diversity and inclusion, and equitable access. Although there are multiple definitions of precision medicine, there is an understanding of it as a data project that focuses on analysis, intervention, and collecting data from various sources.
