Dr. Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, joined other federal leaders at the White House recently to highlight progress on the President’s Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI). Representing the Department of Defense and the Military Health System, Dr. Woodson joined the President and major health industry leaders to commemorate the one year anniversary of the launch of PMI and focus on the promise precision medicine holds for the future of health care.

The promise of PMI is to pioneer a new model of patient-powered research that will accelerate biomedical discoveries and provide clinicians with new tools, knowledge and therapies to customize treatments for individual patients. The initiative aims to provide insights into a wide array of medical challenges by exploring the impact that genetic makeup, environmental factors and lifestyle can have on an individual’s health and wellness.

“When you have responsibility for a population of 9.5 million beneficiaries, as we do in the Military Health System, you very quickly learn that a “one size fits all” approach is less than ideal,” said Dr. Woodson. “What works great for one patient may not be the right answer for another.”

As part of PMI, the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are partnering to expand the VA’s Million Veteran Program (MVP), a participant-driven research cohort and PMI partner with more than 450,000 veteran enrollees. DoD and VA are in the process of finalizing an agreement to facilitate the enrollment of active duty service members into the MVP.

This DoD/VA partnership will expand research opportunities, enhance the quality of data available to both DoD and VA and leverage the natural progression from active duty military to veteran status in support of the delivery of higher quality and better health care. Enrollment is expected to begin this spring.

Woodson also noted the potential of precision medicine for providing answers to health care issues that are of particular interest to the Military Health System. He drew on the MHS’ Surgical Critical Care Initiative (SC2i) as an example. “We’re studying how we can use data unique to each patient to determine timing of debridement and closure for wounds on a case-by-case basis, minimizing wound-related complications,” he said. “That can make a life-saving difference on the battlefield, as well as helping to accelerate a service member’s recovery and return to duty.”

SC2i is a collaborative research effort between the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Naval Medical Research Center, and partners in academia and the private sector.

Another set of ongoing studies at USU are also supporting precision medicine research. The Collaborative Health Initiative Research Program (CHIRP), a major partnership between the USU and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health, was launched to conduct research on the

By using the military’s diverse population base, all of whom have equal access to health care, scientists hope to be able to provide novel insight into optimal medical treatment for individual patients, which will be important for both military and civilian populations.

To learn more about these programs, visit the President’s Precision Medicine Initiative, SC2i, or CHIRP webpages.