Building Precision Medicine Capacity for Innovative Patient Care

Developing a new precision medicine education program at MCW to help this apporach into routine clinical care at MCW, Wisconsin, and the US

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Full Project Name:Building Precision Medicine Capacity for Innovative Patient CarePrincipal Investigator:John Meurer, MD, MBA, Institute for Health and EquityCo-Investigator:Raul Urrutia, MD, SurgeryAward Amount:$518,120

Award Date

February2020

Project Duration:48 months

Project Description Narrative:

Precision medicine allows physicians to prevent and treat disease by accounting for individual variation in genes, environment, and lifestyle. Initially used to study rare genetic diseases, genomic methods are now used widely in a variety of diseases. There is a growing need for clinicians to be competent in this emerging field, however additional training is needed. With one of the most genetically diverse populations in the country, Wisconsin would benefit from these new treatment approaches.

This project will develop a new Precision Medicine (PM) education program at MCW designed to impact physician practices and train students to better undertand and apply biological and genetic factors and environmental and lifestyle variables that influence patient health. The program will consist of a 30-credit Master of Science degree and a 12-credit certificate. The PM education program will enhance the overall MCW education offering in PM, including genetic counseling, biostatistics and data science. Together these innovative education programs will help to bring PM into routine clinical care at MCW, in Wisconsin, and for participants across the US.

Project Updates:

Developed course syllabi and engaged course directors in creation of course competencies, learning objectives, readings, learning activities, learner assessments, and grading rubrics for the program
Expanded efforts in marketing and outreach to increase awareness of the program locally and nationally
Received inquiries and applications from a broad scope of professionals, including genetic counselors, clinical genomics analysts, clinical research coordinators, genomic research program managers, naturopaths, and chiropractors in addition to physicians
Enrolled two students in Summer 2022 courses and five students in Fall 2022 courses