Data is the most important asset when it comes to making informed treatment decisions, to accelerate or optimize therapeutic development, and to reduce cost in the healthcare system by administering therapeutics in a targeted and optimized way. To realize the full potential of data – as was demonstrated with COVID-19 – we need to make data accessible and usable.

The Virtual Precision Medicine World Conference (PMWC), June 14-18, will have a thematic focus on data. We will celebrate and explore data including COVID-19 data, clinical data, data ecosystem and infrastructure needs, as well as AI-based data applications for insights extraction and clinical decision-making. Here’s a peek at data-centric sessions at our upcoming June PMWC conference:

Use of Electronic Health Records to Support a Public Health Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Perspective from US Academic Medical Centers and State Governments – Track 2 | Day 2
• Chair: Atul Butte (UCSF)
• Panelist: Jessie Tenenbaum (NC Department of Health and Human Services), Christopher Longhurst (UCSD Health), Philipe Payne (Washington University School of Medicine), and Melissa Haendel (University of Colorado)
Mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic was hampered by unnecessary delays, due to lack of understanding, predication, and containment of the virus. Major challenges identified were associated with leveraging electronic health record (EHR) data to inform public health decision making and building the necessary data ecosystem and technology infrastructure. This session will focus on the collective experience across several national organizations.

The Role of Genetics, Environment and Healthcare Systems Unraveled Through International Pandemic-Fighting Initiatives – Track 2 | Day 2
• Chair: Iris Grossman (GROSS Advantage)
• Panelist: Heidi Rehm (Massachusetts General Hospital), Yaniv Erlich (MyHeritage), Sharon Alroy-Preis (Ministry of Health, Israel)
Integrated data solutions have proven key to propelling progress in tracking, diagnosing, monitoring, and treating the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. Initiatives spawned by individual countries to harness their own ecosystems, from clinical care to genetic research to mobile phone-based contact tracing, have allowed us to uniquely compare, in real-time, the effectiveness of each approach. Join this session to hear first-hand from public health and medical genomics leaders, who will share their lessons-learned, current best practices, and recommendations for prevention of the next global health crisis.

Real-world Evidence Powering Precision Oncology – Track 2 | Day 2
• Chair: Anna Berry (Syapse)
• Panelist: George Simon (Advent Health), Victoria Raymond (Guardant Health), Shawn Sweeney (AACR), and Christopher Boone (Abbvie)
As the breadth of genomic testing increases and the capture of associated clinical data improves, the data transform not only the way we think about the biology and evolution of cancer, but also improve clinical decision-making, particularly in the case of rare cancers and rare variants of common cancers. New studies that highlight the broad utility of Real World Evidence data sources will be reviewed in this session.

Leveraging In Silico Patients and AI to Better Design Clinical Trials – Track 2 | Day 2
• Chair: Colin Hill (GNS Healthcare)
• Panelist: Siddhartha Roychoudhury (Amgen), Iya Khalil (Novartis), and Mohammad Afshar (Arian Pharma)
Access to high-quality clinico-genomic data and major AI advancements now enable us to (1) create computational models for better understanding of causal disease drivers, disease progression, and drug response; (2) discover markers of differential response, determine optimal combinations, and predict patient outcomes at the individual patient level; and (3) ultimately design more accurate clinical trials from a patient inclusion/exclusion standpoint. This panel will highlight advances in these emerging areas and discuss real-life challenges, successes, and lessons learned.

Integrating Pathology into Multi-omics Cancer Care: Opportunities Beyond Digitalization – Track 2 | Day 2
• Chair: Christian Wolfrum (Siemens Healthineers AG)
• Panelist: Anil Parwani (Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center), Beatrice Knudsen (University of Utah), and Kristina Beeler (Biognosys AG)
Digitalization of pathology offers opportunities beyond transforming daily routine in a digital setting. It enables AI-driven analysis and the integration of pathological images into multi-omics analysis applications and workflows. This session will dive into some these exciting new innovations.

Integrated Approaches to Precision Medicine in Cancer – Day 4 | Track 4
• Chair: Rebecca Brandes (Agilent Technologies)
• Panelist: Hakan Sakul (Pfizer), David Stanforth (Amgen), Kenneth Emancipator (Merck), Mark Li (Resolution Biosciences), and Pamela Munster (UCSF)
Combining different capabilities such as IHC, FISH and NGS can provide greater insights and a more precise diagnosis. This session will cover how liquid biopsy advancements can complement tissue-based testing to provide diagnostic results that help clinicians better manage and treat disease.

Personalized, Proactive Value-Based Care: Emerging New Models – Track 5 | Day 5
• Chair: Ralph Snyderman (Duke University)
• Panelist: Patrick Conway (Optum), Jaewon Ryu (Geisinger), Rodney Hochman (Providence St. Joseph Health), and Marc Harrison (Intermountain Healthcare)
The confluence of the growth of chronic diseases, the impact of COVID, the emergence of new technologies and the impact of value-based reimbursement are driving major innovations and changes in care delivery. Proactive, personalized, precision, population-based and digitally supported care is emerging and heralding new approaches to health care. The changing and dynamic elements of these new approaches will be captured in this session by a panel of key opinion leaders.

Lastly, Track 4-5 will hold three exciting Fireside Chats that you won’t want to miss:
• Fireside Chat with Dr. Ralph Snyderman (Duke University) and Dr. Amy Abernethy (Formally FDA).
• Fireside Chat with Dr. Keith Yamamoto (UCSF) and Dr. Harold Paz (Ohio State University) discussing the Payer’s Perspective on Precision Medicine.
• Fireside Chat with Dr. Lee Hood (Providence) and Dr. Francis Collins (NIH).

See the Full Program and RSVP here.
Joins us for this content-rich, virtual conference, June 14-18, which will focus on these critical and timely topics and where we will seek to advance the various moving elements that improve today’s health care.

Yours truly,
Tal Behar
President, PMWC – Precision Medicine World Conference