While precision medicine has gained traction with thought leaders and outcomes-based research, the cost of transformation leaves many providers wary of taking the plunge. Interoperability, patient engagement and participation – these are all hurdles to getting the most out of implementation.

But first, it’s about building the business case. Those most well-equipped to tackle precision medicine implementation today are large academic medical centers with the technology and resources to aggregate and exchange data. If precision medicine is to be widely accepted and applied, decision-makers across the industry need to be convinced that it really is the way forward to cutting costs and, more importantly, improving outcomes.

“With advances in technology, the level of this data and the creation of targeted therapies, we will be able to save more lives, which will improve overall the state of the business of healthcare,” said Sam Hanna, a professor and program director of the Masters of Science in Management of Healthcare Informatics and Analytics at The George Washington University’s School of Public Health. “So if you’re a hospital or a healthcare organization, you want to be associated with that and you want to be able to deliver these targeted therapies. Patients will go somewhere else if you don’t offer these technologies – and that hits your bottom line.”

For more on the state of precision medicine, check out Beth Jones Sanborn’s writeup in Healthcare Finance News here.