AI-Powered Precision Medicine to Improve Patient Outcomes
A framework to validate the accuracy, safety, and effectiveness of AI in patient care.
- Current traditional medicine practices are uniform for all patients, resulting in high costs and predominantly relying on trial and error for disease diagnosis and treatment plans.
- Advanced genomic research and technology have expedited the integration of precision medicine into clinical practices, aiming to enhance patient outcomes.
- AI-enabled precision medicine holds great promise in helping healthcare providers, research institutions, and pharmaceutical companies to administer the appropriate treatment to the right patient at the right time, thereby reducing disease prevalence and the cost of care.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Most healthcare organizations lack optimized data landscapes, resulting in a typical data analysis turnaround time of 26 hours. This time frame is too slow for real-time use in acute care settings.
- While the accessibility of genetic data for precision medicine is increasing for individuals and clinicians, cost remains a barrier, as it is expensive and often has limited insurance coverage.
- The implementation cost of AI is a notable concern for healthcare organizations, especially when managing competing priorities.
Impact and Result
Info-Tech’s human-centric, value-based approach serves as a guide for deploying AI applications in precision medicine. This approach encompasses:
- Understanding the evolutionary state of precision medicine.
- Identifying the benefits and challenges associated with AI-powered precision medicine.
- Assessing AI maturity for precision medicine using a maturity assessment tool.
AI-Powered Precision Medicine to Improve Patient Outcomes
A framework to validate the accuracy, safety, and effectiveness of AI in patient care.
Analyst Perspective
Optimize precision medicine with AI.
The traditional approach to medicine is typically one-size-fits-all, which has been successful for some patients but not for others. Over the years, clinical researchers and clinicians have explored alternative treatment approaches to improve patient outcomes, leading to the development of precision medicine. This approach to disease treatment, clinical research, and prevention focuses on analyzing health data, individual genetic and molecular information, data from wearable devices, public health, social media images, and behavioral health data for each patient. The goal of precision medicine is to assist clinicians and researchers in delivering the right treatment to the right patient at the right time.
However, accessing data from various sources, the high computational capabilities required to analyze vast amounts of data, and translating big data into healthcare in real time have been ongoing challenges for healthcare organizations. Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled precision medicine shows great promise in revolutionizing healthcare delivery, allowing organizations to efficiently and cost-effectively analyze healthcare big data to develop real-time individualized treatment therapies. This can reduce disease prevalence, improve patient outcomes, and lower the cost of care.
While AI holds great promise in revolutionizing healthcare, there are several challenges, including privacy and security, limited data availability, fairness and bias, and issues of explainability and transparency/trust. This report reviews the benefits of AI-powered precision medicine and provides a framework for assessing your organization's precision medicine AI maturity levels. This will help your organization implement AI in clinical workflows, patient care, and research safely and responsibly
Sharon Auma-Ebanyat
Research Director, Healthcare Practice
Info-Tech Research Group
Executive Summary
Your Challenge
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Common Obstacles
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Info-Tech's ApproachInfo-Tech’s human-centric, value-based approach serves as a guide for deploying AI applications in precision medicine. This approach encompasses:
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Info-Tech Insight
Engage your C-suite executives and clinicians and create awareness on the clinical and business benefits and risks of AI-powered precision medicine and how this can impact the future of healthcare service delivery.
Precision medicine and the future of medicine
What is Precision Medicine?
Precision medicine, which originated in the 1950s, has evolved over time and is sometimes used interchangeably with personalized medicine. However, since 1995, precision medicine represents an updated version of personalized medicine, emphasizing the development of treatment therapies tailored to individual patient conditions.
Although there is no universally agreed upon definition of precision medicine, it is generally characterized as an emerging, tailored approach to disease prevention and treatment. This approach focuses on a patient's genetics, environment, and lifestyle to ensure that the right treatments are administered to the right patients at the right time.
The Human Genome Project of 2003, a global scientific initiative, marked the first complete sequencing of a human genome that could be done quickly and inexpensively. This groundbreaking achievement revolutionized clinical research, making significant advancements in precision medicine possible.
The Future of Medicine
The use and progression of interrogating cellular systems, a concept referred to as “omics" (encompassing genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics), are integral components of precision medicine. When coupled with wearable sensors, these technologies hold the potential to generate extensive data sets. Effectively harnessing this data necessitates innovative and highly computational analysis and integration methodologies to be applied in medical treatment practices.
AI, including pretrained machine learning (ML) or deep learning (DL) algorithms, has the potential to seamlessly integrate these methodologies. The future of medicine will demand a synergy between AI and precision medicine.
The building blocks of precision medicine
- Individual genetics
- Personalized diagnostics
- Environment and lifestyle
- General medical knowledge
“The power in tailored therapeutics is for us to say more clearly to payers, providers, and patients: ‘this drug is not for everyone, but it is for you.’ That is exceedingly powerful.”
— John C. Lechleiter, PhD, former Chairman, President, and CEO at Eli Lilly and Company, in PMC, 2020
Traditional medicine versus precision medicine
Traditional medicine employs a one-size-fits-all approach, using common symptoms to diagnose and treat patients with similar diseases. In contrast, precision medicine concentrates on treating the root cause of the disease, tailored to individual patients.
Traditional Medicine
MEDICATION
- Prescribing all patients the same course of standard prescription therapies that has low viability for most patients
RADIATION & CHEMOTHERAPY
- Use high energy particles to destroy cancer cells
- Use chemicals to target cancer cells
SURGERY
- Operate on a specific part of the body to diagnose or treat a specific condition
Common treatment processes address common diseases, providing a cure for a portion of the patient population.
Precision Medicine
GENETICS
- Gene sequencing
- Locate disease causing genes
IMMUNOTHERAPY
- Determine ways to personalize treatments
- Find ways to optimize the immune system
- Personalize treatment with immune-activating medications
TARGETED THERAPIES
- Medications that turn specific genes on or off
Individualized treatments consider genetic, environmental, and social factors unique to each patient of the disease, tailored to individual patients.
Source: New York Presbyterian, 2023
The evolution of precision medicine
In medical practices over the years, the idea of using a patient's genetic, biological, and social factors to improve and tailor treatment plans has evolved from niche to mainstream.
>1990-1991
- Precision medicine appears as a scientific/medical term.
- The launch of the Human Genome Project, focusing on the investigation of basic genome physiology.
- The understanding of the genetic code, marked by the commencement of DNA sequencing.
1993-2015
- Recognition of VEGF-A as a crucial therapeutic target.
- The first mass production of biochips.
- Publication of the first genomic-wide association studies.
- In 2012, Genome Canada and CIHR Genomics launched the CIHR personalized medicine signature initiative.
- In 2015, President Obama initiated the Precision Medicine Initiative.
2016
- The European Commission established the international consortium for personalized medicine.
- FDA approves liquid biopsy test.
- Healthcare organizations conduct precision medicine studies, particularly in cancer research, using AI.
2020
- The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The application of precision medicine in treatment plans for COVID patients to determine the best therapies.
The future
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Advancement in application of AI-enabled precision medicine:
- Accurate diagnostic tool
- Efficient prediction tools
- Targeted therapies
Governments are investing in precision medicine
The US Precision Medicine Initiative
In 2015, the United States (US) government under the Obama administration developed and invested $215 million dollars into the Precision Medicine Initiative. The goal was to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to healthcare service delivery toward an individualized approach to medicine.
CIHR Personalised Medicine Signature Initiative in Canada
In 2012, Genome Canada and CIHR Genomics launched the CIHR Personalized Medicine Signature Initiative after several provincial and federal workshops with policymakers, clinicians, researchers, and health authorities. The workshops aimed to develop strategies and initiatives for evidence-based medicine and preventative interventions.
International Consortium for Personalised Medicine
In November 2016, over 30 European and international members, including researchers, funding agencies, and policymakers, with oversight from the European Commission, established the International Consortium for Personalised Medicine. The consortium aims to:
- Position Europe as a global leader in personalized/precision medicine research.
- Reduce healthcare costs given the increased prevalence of chronic conditions.
- Support the evolving research of precision medicine and drive healthcare innovation.
- Provide evidence-based demonstrations of personalized/precision medicine to citizens and healthcare systems.
- Determine the ideal approach for personalized/precision medicine therapies that work best for individual citizens.
- Reduce adverse reactions to medicine, accounting for 6% of acute hospital admissions
Source: European Commission, 2020.
US$7.8 billion
Invested by the US government in 2023 to support precision medicine especially for cancer patients with plans to reauthorize the Century Cures Act Cancer Moonshot through 2026 toward the cure for cancer.
Source: The White House, 2023.
C$56.7 million
Invested by the Canadian Government in 2023 on the Genome Canada’s Genomic Application Partnership Program including $22.9 million in precision health.
Source: Genome Canada, 2023.
€100 million
Invested by the European Union in 2023 for a partnership between member states on precision/personalized medicine.
Source: ScienceBusiness, 2023.
Hospital CIOs’ five-year plans for precision medicine
Several healthcare IT leaders are prioritizing precision medicine and emerging technologies in their 5-year investment plans.
UPMC developed an institute for precision medicine in 2014 and for the next five years will continue to make significant investments including:
- Establishing a clinical next generation genomic sequencing center.
- Developing innovative precision therapeutics.
- Pharmacogenomics for patients with high-risk adverse events and drug interactions.
Sanford Health in South Dakota is focusing its efforts on prevention, early detection, and diagnosis for the next five years by:
- Leveraging ML and high computational power to analyze clinical data.
- Focusing on chronic disease management and cancer prevention.
Virginia Hospital Center considers itself a fast and early adopter of new technology. For the next five years, they are investing in home and remote patient by:
- Developing technology to incorporate precision medicine in population management. The goal is to maintain a low-touch approach, minimize costs, and address staffing shortages.
South Shore Health in Massachusetts will invest in tools to empower patients in their care for the next five years, including:
- Enhancing a central patient access center.
- Developing care coordination technology tools where patients can access 24/7 for self-service, virtual visits, and managing patient medications.
- Incorporating data for customized precision medicine.
Providence is investing US$50 million over the next five years in health equity, with a focus on:
- Using the Internet of Things (IoT) with smart devices to remotely gather real-time data.
- Optimizing their big data model.
- Using the IoT with the aim to increase data volumes, serving as an enabler for precision medicine.
The Regenstrief Institute is developing tools over the next five years to identify bias in ML algorithms and improve health equity by:
- Developing a framework for overseeing, monitoring, and evaluating AI algorithms and analytics.
- Investing in patient ergonomics to incorporate human factors and design for patient technology.
Source: Healthcare IT News, 2022.
Drivers of precision medicine growth
At the system level, several stakeholders play a role in driving the growth of precision medicine, with varying emphasis on certain value attributes.
- Patients: As genetic testing becomes more common and affordable, many patients are opting for a precision medicine approach in their routine care to determine the best treatment based on their genetics.
- Hospital or health system: Due to the increasing costs of care for chronic diseases, healthcare organizations are exploring cost-effective treatment approaches.
- Clinicians: Given the research evidence showing the benefits of precision medicine and advances in medical technology improving patient outcomes, clinicians are demanding and exploring precision medicine practices to better manage their patients.
- Payers: Due to the increasing cost of healthcare, especially with chronic care patients, payers are limiting reimbursements for the overuse of diagnostic testing, driving healthcare organizations to explore value-based models and adopt precision medicine approaches to reduce care costs.
- Healthcare regulators and agencies: With the increased adoption of precision medicine and the improving effectiveness of healthcare technologies, regulators are developing policies to keep up with the advances in technology in clinical care to ensure patient safety.
- Policymakers: Due to the advancements and adoption of precision medicine and medical technology, policymakers are facing pressures from healthcare organizations and research institutions to develop policies that govern precision medicine practices.
Precision medicine is on the rise globally
Source: Strategic Market Research, 2022.
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- Soma Kancherla, Senior Healthcare Solutions Architect Central & Western USA, VMware