Committee backs goal of 1 million for US 'precision medicine' project

The initial goal to recruit 1 million Americans to analyze genetic information as part of the government's "precision medicine" initiative was backed in a final report delivered to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Thursday.

The "precision medicine" initiative, announced in January by President Barack Obama, will involve a pool of people - healthy and ill, men and women, old and young - who will be studied to learn how genetic variants affect health and disease.

The report, authored by a working group that was created to lay out a blueprint for the initiative, suggested the pool of people to be studied should grow over time. (http://1.usa.gov/1YgI7Lj)

The group outlined two strategies for recruitment.

The first approach is designed to enable anybody living in the United States to volunteer; the second is to collaborate with healthcare providers to recruit participants.

An advisory committee to the NIH is expected to vote on the recommendations later on Thursday.

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