Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending the “Delivering the Promise of Precision Medicine” conference sponsored by the Bay Area Council in conjunction with Genentech and Oracle.  The conference was great!! I have much deeper understanding of precision medicine from a variety of perspectives. I also came away with a much better understanding of the relationship between population health and precision medicine.

I left the conference with some strong takeaways:

 

• How precision medicine might ultimately provide the supporting framework for successful population health program.  
• The possibilities and potential roadblocks for precision medicine in changing the drug industry and ultimately affecting people’s health status.
• How payers such as Blue Shield of California view precision medicine.
• There seemed to be an overwhelming sense that the development of precision medicine could ultimately lower costs in the U.S. Healthcare system.  Dr. Michael Seiden provocatively suggested that precision medicine may be more like airbags than stagecoaches.  His point was that cars replaced stagecoaches, airbags simply increased the coast (and safety) of cars.  He also pointed out that none of the market participants in the healthcare space ever suggest that the companies and by extension, size and revenue are going to shrink.  So where are the cost savings going to come from?

 

The highlight of the conference may have been the admission by conference organizer and President of the Bay Area Council, Micah Weinberg that he is a fan of the The Smiths.