Precision medicine requires health data to be made available for analysis, and several leading EHR vendors are stepping up to make this a reality as part of President Obama's Precision Medicine Initiative.
The White House issued a fact sheet outlining actions to accelerate precision medicine. Among them is the commitment by six vendors to pilot the use of open, standardized application programming interfaces and other methods to allow individuals to share their data with the Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort. The cohort seeks at least one million volunteers to share their health data.
Allscripts, athenahealth, Cerner, drchrono, Epic and McKesson have pledged to participate in these pilots, called "Sync for Science."
"By inviting patients to contribute their data to ground-breaking research efforts such as the PMI Cohort Program, this collaborative industry effort will speed progress in delivering the benefits of a precision medicine approach to healthcare professionals and patients alike," said Allscripts CEO Paul Black in a statement. "Creating a national database with one million patients promises a more data-driven and personalized approach to treatment than exists today, and that is going to mean improved outcomes and a better care experience for patients."
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