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In 2015, former President Barack Obama launched a national Precision Medicine Initiative indicative of the shift in the practice of medicine toward more targeted approaches to disease prevention and personalized treatment within the U.S. healthcare system. As the Initiative materials explain: “Until now, most medical treatments have been designed for the ‘average patient.’ As a result of this ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, treatments can be very successful for some patients but not for others. Precision Medicine, on the other hand, is an innovative approach that takes into account individual differences in people’s genes, environments, and lifestyles.”
At the national level, it is becoming clear that new and currently practicing physicians are not well equipped to handle this new approach, known as Personalized (or Precision) Medicine, which asks health care practitioners to tailor patient communication and decision-making to varying levels of health literacy, and treatment and prevention strategies to other unique patient characteristics, including their genome sequence, microbiome composition, health history, lifestyle, and diet. Particularly with regard to genomics-based testing applications in patient care for inherited disease, cancer, patient stratification based on genetic risk factors, and pharmacogenomics, a new skill set is required of physicians.
Students who complete the certificate will be able to appropriately:
Example Activities Within The Certificate
The Certificate will engage students with experiences that demonstrate how concepts that students are learning in their didactic Personalized Health Care courses are put into practice and impact patient care. These include:
This Certificate requires a significant commitment of ≥ 10 credit hours of additional course work in Personalized Medicine or related electives in addition to the standard medical student curriculum.
Typical Certificate Schedules, totaling 15 course credit hours:
Year 1 Fall | MD ID 7250/MDCRC 6150 Foundations in Personalized Health Care (2 credits) |
Year 1 Fall | MDID 7300 Foundations of Medicine (2.5 credits) |
Year 1 Spring | MD ID 7251/MDCRC 6370 Genetics and Medicine: Ethical, Legal and Social Issues (2 credits) |
Year 1 Spring | MD ID 7310 Molecules, Cells, and Cancer (2.5 credits) |
Year 2 Fall | MD ID 7253/PED 5750 Genomic Analysis I (2 credits) |
Year 2 Spring | MDCRC 6141: Experiences in Personalized Medicine (1) |
Year 3 Spring / Year 4 Fall | MD ID 7255/MDCRC 6940 Personalized Health Care Capstone (0.5 - 1 credit, may be repeated) |
Year 4 Spring | BIOC 7201: Genetic Therapies (2 credits) |
Student may also receive optional research credit towards the certificate between years 1 and 2, depending on the project and mentor. |