The Present Tense of American Healthcare

The National Minority Quality Forum is committed to advancing the ability of the American healthcare system to deliver the highest quality, evidence-based healthcare to all patients, their families and communities. The ability of the American research, financing and delivery system to create precision therapies that recognize variability in disease presentation and therapeutic responses, and that are readily available and affordable must be a cornerstone of this reformed system.

Precision medicine is an approach to disease prevention and treatment that takes into account variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle. Precision medicine is not a new area of science — examples include prescriptions for eyeglasses or contact lenses, blood typing to guide blood transfusions, and some cancer therapies. However, the majority of prevention and treatment options remain constrained by “one-size-fits-all” designs. Much work needs to be done, therefore, to enable precision medicine to fulfill its potential to predict with accuracy which treatment and prevention strategies for particular diseases will work in which patients or population cohorts.

The National Minority Quality Forum has created this precision medicine resource to share information and facilitate engagement in the collaborative work we are doing with organizations and individuals in the public and private sectors who are committed to making this vision a sustainable reality. Until then, the value of our health services system to the end user, the American healthcare consumer, will be discounted.

Precision Medicine Resources

We share with you here links to many of the resources that are currently available online to advance the conversation about precision medicine.