Getting More Precise About Precision Medicine

By Clive Riddle, October 16, 2019

The October Care Intervention Edition of Care Analytics News profiled Dr. Jen Buhay, Precision Medicine Clinical Program Manager for The US Oncology Network. The term “Precision Medicine” can sound straight-forward, yet for those not directly involved in this arena, there is not always a clear understanding of its current scope.

So the first question asked of Doctor Buhay was simply “What is Precision Medicine?” she replied: “In the simplest terms, Precision Medicine is the “right test for the right patient at the right time.” But the practice of Precision Medicine is not so simple. A physician must choose from an array of complicated tests that are appropriate for a diagnosis and the creation of a treatment plan for their patient in a timely manner. That’s a lot of separate data and time points to manage for one patient, so how do we connect these individual patients together with their own personalized sets of tests and outcomes to improve population health?”

It can also help to take a glimpse of the background of someone in the field. Jen leads biomarker testing, education, and operational efforts at The US Oncology Network, “to support personalized patient care for oncology. Previously, she led precision medicine initiatives in a community hospital setting and worked as a laboratory scientist for commercial and academic molecular diagnostic laboratories. Dr. Buhay holds a PhD in Integrative Biology (molecular genetics and computational biology) from Brigham Young University, an MS in Biology from Eastern Kentucky University, and a BS in Animal Behavior from Juniata College. She is board-certified as a Molecular Biologist through the American Society for Clinical Pathology.”

Dr Buhay cites breast cancer as an area where Precision Medicine can really help, and “has resulted in the development and evolution of standard biomarker testing guidelines, risk assessment and screening protocols, and treatment plans that are now widely recognized and used. This clinical application of Precision Medicine has resulted in the avoidance of unnecessary and ineffective testing and treatment, rapid identification of targeted treatments with good responses in similar populations, and the proactive screening of families at high risk for breast cancers.”

Regarding future potential, Jen says “the big picture comes together in Precision Medicine when clinical outcomes are linked to the biomarker testing choices, disease screening methods, and targeted treatment plans for large groups of patients as part of clinical trials and translational research. With the analysis of “big data” comes new and updated biomarker testing recommendations, patient care models, disease screening protocols, and treatment guidelines by professional medical societies. These guidelines reflect the most recent technological advances in laboratory science from the bench to the bedside, and this information is continually evolving with new studies leading to better survival rates, increased detection, and improved treatments for future patients. Precision Medicine efforts will continue to expand across many diseases as more physicians learn the lessons of how breast cancer incorporated biomarker testing, disease screening, and targeted therapies into standard practices and guidelines for the betterment of individuals, families, and populations.”