NHGRI's definition for genomic medicine:
"Genomic medicine is an emerging medical discipline that involves using genomic information about an individual as part of their clinical care (e.g. for diagnostic or therapeutic decision-making) and the health outcomes and policy implications of that clinical use."
The opportunity to use genomic information to improve health - genomic medicine - is a direct result of the Human Genome Project. NHGRI does this by supporting scientific research that helps us understand illness at the molecular level and by increasing our ability to apply that knowledge to keep people healthy and do more to help those who are ill. This is the essence of genomic medicine.
Using knowledge of a person's health risks and diagnosis to guide their healthcare is not new. But the use of genetic information for health care has been relatively uncommon. This is changing. A tidal wave of information and genomic testing opportunities are both expanding our options, affecting many more medical conditions, and raising new questions.
NHGRI's website provides many genomic medicine resources. Here are some places to start:
Last Updated: July 21, 2016
