Precision medicine is an emerging approach for disease treatment where genes, the environment and lifestyle of each person is taken into account.

Thomas D. Brown, the executive director of the Swedish Cancer Institute in Seattle has started a new Precision Medicine Council convened by tech company Synapse. The council includes Henry Ford Health System, Dignity Health, Catholic Health Initiatives, Aurora Health Care and the University of Miami Health System. 

This council will act as a central to build massive and diverse data, so researchers can advance their therapeutic research in the genomic field.

Thomas D. Brown said, "The council is intended to share best practices or share practices in a field that's rapidly evolving; People have taken different approaches in assembling precision medicine programs and we've each learned certain things along the way." 

At present, the research in precision medicine is focused only on DNA mutations, for oncology care but researchers want to explore the changes in RNA followed by protein expression. 

Brown said, "Changes in protein expression are the most downstream result; Proteomics...really, in some ways, is where ultimately most of the attention will be." 

Nearly two-thirds of the population has not heard of precision medicine before. The real task is to make patients aware of how much precision medicine can benefit them. 

Brown further added, "I'm careful to always emphasize that this information can help, it can complement, and sometimes it can, even in a very specific way, direct treatment; but oftentimes it doesn't."