Precision health: A nursing perspective

Mei R Fu; Emma Kurnat-Thoma; Angela Starkweather; Wendy A Henderson; Ann K Cashion; Janet K Williams; Maria C Katapodi; Karin Reuter-Rice; Kathleen T Hickey; Veronica Barcelona de Mendoza; Kathleen Calzone; Yvette P Conley; Cindy M Anderson; Debra E Lyon; Michael T Weaver; Pamela K Shiao; Rose E Constantino; Shu-Fen Wung; Marilyn J Hammer; Joachim G Voss; Bernice Coleman

doi:10.1016/j.ijnss.2019.12.008

Precision health: A nursing perspective

Int J Nurs Sci. 2019 Dec 24;7(1):5-12. doi: 10.1016/j.ijnss.2019.12.008. eCollection 2020 Jan 10.

Authors

Mei R Fu¹, Emma Kurnat-Thoma^{2

3}, Angela Starkweather⁴, Wendy A Henderson⁴, Ann K Cashion², Janet K Williams⁵, Maria C Katapodi⁶, Karin Reuter-Rice⁷, Kathleen T Hickey⁸, Veronica Barcelona de Mendoza⁹, Kathleen Calzone¹⁰, Yvette P Conley¹¹, Cindy M Anderson¹², Debra E Lyon¹³, Michael T Weaver¹³, Pamela K Shiao¹⁴, Rose E Constantino¹¹, Shu-Fen Wung¹⁵, Marilyn J Hammer¹⁶, Joachim G Voss¹⁷, Bernice Coleman¹⁸

Affiliations

¹ William F. Connell School of Nursing, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA.
² National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
³ School of Nursing and Health Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA.
⁴ School of Nursing, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA.
⁵ School of Nursing, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
⁶ Nursing Science, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
⁷ School of Nursing, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
⁸ School of Nursing, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
⁹ School of Nursing, Yale University, Orange, CT, USA.
¹⁰ National Cancer Institute, Center for Cancer Research, Genetic Branch, Bethesda, MD, USA.
¹¹ School of Nursing, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
¹² College of Nursing, The Ohio State University, OH, USA.
¹³ University of Florida Gainesville, FL, USA.
¹⁴ Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University, Augusta, GA, USA.
¹⁵ College of Nursing The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
¹⁶ Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, LW523, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁷ Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
¹⁸ Nursing Research and Development, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, USA.

Abstract

Precision health refers to personalized healthcare based on a person's unique genetic, genomic, or omic composition within the context of lifestyle, social, economic, cultural and environmental influences to help individuals achieve well-being and optimal health. Precision health utilizes big data sets that combine omics (i.e. genomic sequence, protein, metabolite, and microbiome information) with clinical information and health outcomes to optimize disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention specific to each patient. Successful implementation of precision health requires interprofessional collaboration, community outreach efforts, and coordination of care, a mission that nurses are well-positioned to lead. Despite the surge of interest and attention to precision health, most nurses are not well-versed in precision health or its implications for the nursing profession. Based on a critical analysis of literature and expert opinions, this paper provides an overview of precision health and the importance of engaging the nursing profession for its implementation. Other topics reviewed in this paper include big data and omics, information science, integration of family health history in precision health, and nursing omics research in symptom science. The paper concludes with recommendations for nurse leaders in research, education, clinical practice, nursing administration and policy settings for which to develop strategic plans to implement precision health.

Keywords: Genomics; Nurses; Omics; Precision health; Precision medicine.

Publication types

Review