While medicine has paid lip service to the idea of personalizing healthcare, it is really only in the last several decades that technological advances make it possible to realistically contemplate this goal. Examples of these advances include genomic and other technologies to predict disease susceptibility and drug response, digital technologies to engage large numbers of subjects and interrogate their health status, and increasing ability to interpret very large datasets such as genomes or phenomes in electronic medical records (EMRs). Vanderbilt is home to a number of initiatives in precision medicine, from federally-funded projects to institution-wide resources, tools, and academic programs.
