In early February, the Faculty of Medicine held its first Precision Health Symposium, bringing together faculty, clinicians, researchers, learners and staff across precision health-related research and education.
The full-day event included presentations from keynote speakers and Precision Health Catalyst Grant Award recipients, seminar sessions, networking opportunities, and poster sessions.
About precision health
Precision health is an individualized approach to maximizing health that engages patients and leverages genomic and other ‘omic, biomarker, environment, and/or socioeconomic information about a person to identify and implement a range of prevention and/or treatment actions, at the patient-, population-, and/or policy level.
The Faculty of Medicine Precision Health initiative launched in September 2021, growing from the Faculty’s strategic plan. The initiative aims to enable collaboration, and prioritize and support work in this growing field of health research.
“The Precision Health initiative was a response to the Faculty’s strategic priority to enhance UBC’s collective leadership in precision health,” explains Dr. Chris Carlsten, past lead of Precision Health. “There is vibrant activity across the precision health spectrum, and we have now built a synergistic structure that facilitates coordination, connects researchers with areas of strength and emerging areas, and bridges disciplines.”
Current lead of the Faculty’s Precision Health initiative Dr. Stuart Turvey says, “I am excited to continue the vision for the initiative and support research in priority precision health areas.”
At the symposium
As the Faculty’s first Precision Health Symposium, the event brought together faculty, staff, and students across UBC faculties and departments with the goal to foster collaboration between researchers in the field.
Keynote speaker Dr. Nadine Caron, a member of the Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation, Co-Director of the UBC Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Health, and a professor in the Northern Medical Program and Department of Surgery, presented “Searching for equity in genomic research and precision medicine”. Guest keynote speaker Dr. Michael Snyder from Stanford University spoke on “Transforming healthcare with big data”.
Additional presentations were made by recipients of the 2022 Catalyst Grant Awards on their projects, along with a poster session and breakout sessions to showcase resources and tools available to support precision health research.
Dr. Turvey notes that “the symposium was a great success. It not only highlighted our expertise in this field, but also created an opportunity to unite different aspects within the Faculty of Medicine and enable inter-faculty collaboration on future precision health research ideas.”
Learn more
Visit the initiative’s webpage to learn more about what’s happening in precision health, including:
- Find upcoming events
- How to apply for Precision Health Catalyst Grants and explore previously-funded projects
- Sign up for the mailing list
