Opportunity for the Obama Economic Stimulus Bill to Accelerate Personalized Medicine, The

This Health Industry Insights Perspective provides insights on some of the many ways that the recently passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (i.e., the Obama economic stimulus bill) can be expected to accelerate the broad adoption of personalized medicine (PM) in the United States. From the broad creation of electronic medical records (EMRs) to comparative effectiveness research to expanded National Institutes of Health (NIH) research, the economic stimulus bill offers both near-term and longer-term opportunities to enhance the U.S. healthcare system through systematic improvements in applying knowledge (both current and future) to improve individual patient outcomes. As a serious threat to the status quo, we can only hope that progress toward the collective common good is not derailed by lack of patience, political agendas, or selfish pursuit of financial gains by entrenched stakeholders.

This document is one of several Health Industry Insights documents covering the economic stimulus bill from the different perspectives of Health Industry Insights analysts, ranging from drug discovery through to healthcare providers, healthcare payers, and ultimately consumers.