What is Precision Health?
Precision health is a transformative approach for disease prevention and treatment that promises an individualized, molecular view of health and wellness. Precision health reimagines how we care for patients at BC Children’s Hospital (BCCH). By harnessing emerging technologies that allow us to understand health and disease at the level of genes and molecules, we will redefine our approach to child health. We will make diagnoses for children with previously undiagnosed conditions, we will select the best treatments based on a child’s genetic makeup, and guided by the child’s biology we will predict and prevent future health challenges.
The purpose of the Precision Health Initiative (PHI) is to accelerate, simplify and unify the delivery of precision health research at BCCH. Building out from the successful Rare Disease Discovery Hub, the PHI will become a single point of entry and coordination for patient-facing precision health research projects at BCCH. Additionally, the PHI will act as foundation for future investments in emerging PH technology and expertise to layer into an existing structure.
Specifically, the PHI is currently working to develop:
i) An ethically-approved and fully-supported pathway for undiagnosed patients and families guided by clinicians to access research-based cutting edge Precision Health multi-omic technologies to advance care of children at BCCH;
ii) Support and direction for BCCH investigators on how to access Precision Health technologies, expertise, and resources onsite;
iii) Precision health-related education to trainees, staff, researchers, and clinicians at BCCH;
iv) Coordinated computational solutions to support secure data analysis for Precision Health technologies across BCCH.