Frontiers in Precision Medicine: Exploring Science and Policy Boundaries

Abstract

Precision medicine is being developed today within a complex landscape of public policy, science, economics, law, and regulation. Important features of this landscape include health care financing, patent protection for new innovations, regulatory approvals of tests and therapies, patient consent and access, and protection of privacy. In these and other policy areas, the goal of developing individually-tailored therapies poses novel challenges for health care research, delivery and policy. In December 2015, the University of Utah School of Medicine, Huntsman Cancer Institute and S.J. Quinney College of Law convened a two-day symposium at which national experts in genetics, medicine, bioinformatics, intellectual property, regulatory science, health economics and bioethics discussed and debated many of the pressing questions raised by precision medicine. The key arguments, conclusions and unresolved issues that emerged from the symposium are summarized in these proceedings.

Keywords: precision medicine, ethics, patent, informed consent, PMI