One of the highlights of the year for those of us at the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine is the yearly Individualizing Medicine Conference. It’s a very exciting time for us as we share with you the latest discoveries in personalized patient care. This year’s conference already has a great line up of thought-provoking keynote speakers and innovative breakout sessions that offer ways to apply the latest advancement to the medical practice.

Experts in precision medicine from around the world will share how rapid advances in genomic technology and research are providing new insights into health and disease. How are these discoveries being turned into new methods for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease? What new targeted treatments can physicians offer their patients now? Find answers to these questions and learn about the latest developments in precision medicine October 9-10 at Individualizing Medicine 2017 in Rochester, Minnesota.

Keynote speakers

Two keynote speakers will set the stage for the conference by discussing the latest precision medicine research and how it is impacting patient care.

Dr. Robert Green

Robert Green M.D., M.P.H., leads the first randomized trials of clinical genome sequencing in adults (the MedSeq Project) and newborns (the BabySeq Project), and was recently awarded the first research project on clinical sequencing of personnel in the US Armed Forces.

Dr. Green is associate director for Research, Partners Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine. He is a medical geneticist and physician-scientist who directs the Genomes2People Research Program in translational genomics and health outcomes at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Broad Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Dr. Keith Stewart

A. Keith Stewart, M.B., Ch.B., M.B.A. leads the Center for Individualized Medicine at Mayo Clinic, which has a mission of translating innovative genomic research into clinical practice. As a visionary in precision medicine, he collaborates with clinicians and industry partners to accelerate the deployment and utilization of individualized advanced diagnostics and clinical services across the spectrum of medical specialties. Dr. Stewart believes that ultimately every individual will have his or her genome sequenced to provide higher quality, higher value health care.

Dr. Stewart is the Carlson and Nelson Endowed Medical Director, Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, the Vasek and Anna Maria Polak Professor of Cancer Research and a consultant in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Mayo Clinic’s Rochester, Minnesota campus.

Plenary session speakers

This year’s plenary session speakers are innovators in both the way precision medicine research is conducted and how new discoveries are implemented into clinical care.

Eric Dishman

Eric Dishman, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Precision Medicine Initiative, All of Us Research Program, will be joining us. He will provide an update on the All of Us Research Program, which aims to advance precision medicine research by gathering biosamples and health and lifestyle information from 1 million or more volunteers across the United States. NIH's All of Us Research Program is a major piece of the Precision Medicine Initiative^®— an unprecedented research effort aimed at applying precision medicine to all diseases.

Prior to joining NIH, Dishman was an Intel Fellow and vice president, Health and Life Sciences Group, at Intel Corporation, where he was responsible for driving global strategy, research and development, product and platform development, and policy initiatives for health and life science solutions. His organization focused on growth opportunities for Intel in health IT, genomics and personalized medicine, consumer wellness, and care coordination technologies.

Dr. William Gahl

William Gahl, M.D., Ph.D., clinical director, National Human Genome Research Institute, will also speak at the conference. Dr. Gahl is head of the Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases Network at NIH, which aims to provide answers to patients with mysterious conditions that have long eluded diagnosis and advance medical knowledge about rare and common diseases.

Dr. Gahl’s research has focused on the natural history of rare metabolic disorders and the discovery of new genetic diseases. He has published more than 380 peer-reviewed papers, trained over 40 biochemical geneticists, established American Board of Medical Specialties certification for medical biochemical genetics and received numerous awards.

Four reasons to attend

It’s not too early to plan to attend the conference. Registration opens in April, but now is a great time to put this conference on your calendar. Here are four reasons to attend:

1. Discover practical applications for genomic medicine and how to integrate promising new therapies into patient care.
2. Learn from expert speakers, focused breakout sessions and a poster session.
3. Earn continuing education credits (CME, CPE and CEU).
4. Network with others in the field and explore opportunities for collaboration.

 Learn more about the conference

• For a complete schedule and list of speakers, visit the conference website.
• Follow the latest news related to the conference on the Center for Individualized Medicine blog, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter at @MayoClinicCIM and use the hashtag #CIMCon17.

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