A number of developments over the last decade are promoting bold new projects that can enable the promise of precision or personalized medicine. While DNA sequencing costs continue to drop rapidly, equally important has been the widespread adoption of electronic health records (EHR) allowing for the low cost, highly secure exchange of large amounts of longitudinal health data from individuals. In addition, the increasing consumer adoption of mobile and personal technologies offers the opportunity to link genomic and health data with exposure, behavioral and other environmental health data on a scale not previously possible. We must ensure that the benefits of these advances are accessible to all. Key to the success of the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) Cohort Program will be the proportional inclusion of diverse groups. This is a major strength of the ?South-East Enrollment Center? (SEEC) consortium. SEEC will recruit 10,000 individuals from Florida and Georgia into PMI, including approximately 3,000 (30%) Hispanic/Latino and 3,200 (32%) Black/African American volunteers. Importantly, half of the Hispanics will come from the Caribbean (e.g. Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic) and the other half from South and Central America. Our sample of Blacks will include approximately 305 foreign-born blacks predominantly from Haiti and English speaking Caribbean islands. The Consortium will be spearheaded by four leading academic health centers in Florida and Georgia. Each member brings a considerable track record of establishing genomic cohorts, recruiting minorities into clinical research, forming community engagement partnerships, and sharing medical records across large networks (e.g. all participate in PCORnet).
| Shenkman, Elizabeth; Hurt, Myra; Hogan, William et al. (2018) OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium: Linking a Clinical and Translational Science Institute With a Community-Based Distributive Medical Education Model. Acad Med 93:451-455 |
