Guest Blogger: Anya Schiess, MBA, General Partner, Co-Founder, Healthy Ventures (Ms. Schiess will be giving a presentation entitled "Healthy Ventures: A New VC Perspective" at the 7th Annual Personalized and Precision Medicine Conference in Baltimore on October 5-6, 2015.
The Personalized/Precision Medicine Blog
The official blog of the Annual Personalized and Precision Medicine Conference provides readers with information, insight and analysis regarding the field of personalized and precision medicine, genomics, genomic interpretation and the evolution of healthcare in the post-genomic era.

John Waslif
John Waslif is the Managing Director of Arrowhead Publishers and Conferences and the Producer of their Annual Personalized Medicine Conference, which brings together multiple stakeholders, including payers, molecular diagnostics companies, genome analysis/interpretation companies, clinicians and many others in order to provide attendees with a holistic view of the personalized and precision medicine landscape.
Guest Bloggers: Ron Eisenstein, Partner, Nixon Peabody, David Resnick, JD, Partner, Nixon Peabody (Mr. Resnick will be giving a presentation entitled "Balancing Public and Private Intellectual Property Interests in a Post Mayo-Myriad Age: What is Likely to Be Patentable in Diagnostics - and What Should Be Patentable - to Best Serve the Public Interest" at the 7th Annual Personalized and Precision Medicine Conference in Baltimore on October 5-6, 2015.
By now most people have read about the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's long awaited decision in Ariosa v. Sequenom. Whether or not you agree with the decision, almost all, including the Federal Circuit, agree that the technology in question revolutionized prenatal diagnostics. Sequenom developed the relevant technology to use fetal DNA in the mother’s blood to detect genetic abnormalities. This technological advance allowed diagnostic tests, for example, screening for Down’s Syndrome, to be done with a small sample of the mother’s blood, avoiding the serious risks of amniocentesis.
Genomic sequencing is moving into clinical care, but this technological advance threatens to outpace our ability to use it effectively in clinical practice and to address the associated health policy issues. A key issue is whether payers will cover sequencing and what evidence will be needed to document its value. The TRANSPERS (Ctr for Translational & Policy Research on Personalized Medicine) Center at UC San Francisco has just released a Policy Primer for Genomic Sequencing, the press release for which can be viewed here: http://tinyurl.com/owbzaya.
Foley & Hoag’s Bruce Quinn, MD, Ph.D., a national expert on Medicare policy and health reform has offered his thoughts on the FDA’s recent notice of intent to issue draft guidance for regulation of lab-developed tests (LDTs) in a couple of forums recently. Here are the urls:
http://tinyurl.com/l2awysc
http://tinyurl.com/kqaejrm
New discoveries in genomics research are exciting to physicians because they can see that genomics targeting may provide greater effectiveness in patient treatments. In collaboration with the Genomics Medicine Institute (GMI) at El Camino Hospital and Genetic Alliance, NCHPEG (National Coalition for Health Professionals Education in Genetics) has developed a CME curriculum on genomic medicine.
The 6th Annual Personalized & Precision Medicine Conference is pleased to announce that Dr. Paul Billings, Chief Medical Officer at Omicia, Scientific Advisory Board member of the FDA, member of the Genomic Medicine Advisory Committee at the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, and the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Genomics has joined the speaking faculty for the 2014 conference to be held on October 29 & 30, 2014 in San Francisco, CA.
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genomic services have generated controversy over when it is appropriate to provide genetic results to individuals. Critics have argued for restrictive regulation of such services, and even their prohibition, on the grounds of the harm they may pose to consumers. However, others argue that these services offer consumers the ability to make better-informed health decisions based on increased understanding of genetic risks.