The increasing national focus on personalized or precision medicine is misguided, distracting from broader investments to reduce health inequities and address the social factors that affect population health, say two public health scholars in the New England Journal of Medicine. Sandro Galea, M.D., DrPH, of the Boston University School of Public Health, and Ronald Bayer, Ph.D., of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, argue that there is broad consensus that health differences between and within groups are not driven by clinical care, but by social-structural factors that shape our lives. They maintain that more attention needs to be paid to the health effects of environmental conditions and racial disparities in income and resources.
Poll Question:
Should sociocultural and environmental factors that influence health receive more emphasis and investment than the emerging field of precision medicine?
Yes
30
No
24
