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
Continued to advance outreach and marketing efforts within Wisconsin and throughout the U.S. to raise awareness of the program, including through a new connection with U.S.-Madison faculty and prominent Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the country, among others, resulting in new student inquiries and interest in the program
Continued to grow the student body for the program with seven new students during the past year, including six being from Wisconsin
Celebrated the first graduates of the program
Received approval to offer a 15-hour online Precision Medicine CME and MOC2 course beginning in September 2023 to complement and serve as an entry point to the certificate and master’s degree program