Hearing the word “precision” in healthcare typically conjures ideas of cutting edge technologies and treatments like targeted genetic therapy. But it has another meaning in primary care: leveraging data from a variety of sources to deliver personalized, preventive care.

“It’s a way to bring the big data – whether that is on the population level, from digital health devices like wearables, or additional insights from ‘omics diagnostic tests – into the clinical practice,” Dr. Megan Mahoney, who is chief of general primary care at Stanford University’s division of Primary Care and Population Health, told MobiHealthNews. “Then we ask, how do we synthesize data to identify a patient out of a large population who can be managed and treated to prevent an adverse outcome, disease worsening, or hospitalization?”

It’s exactly that question that Mahoney and her colleagues are trying to answer, and she will share details about a new program underway at Stanford during HIMSS’ Precision Medicine Summit in Boston next week.

While the core goal of precision medicine is to determine which specific disease or health indicators can guide tailored interventions, much of that promise is focused on people who are actively in treatment for disease. Stanford Health Care wants to move that process upstream and redesign primary care practice.

Read the full article in Mobi Health News.