Why the FCC Broadband Plan Matters for Personal Genetics

(MoneyWatch)  The Federal Communication's Commission (FCC) National Broadband Plan was passed to Congress today, and of course, you ask: What does that have to do with the genetics business?

The answer is a lot. Since personalized medicine will involve both health IT and mobile healthcare delivery, Internet pipes really matter. There's even a section in the FCC's plan that focuses on mobile broadband and the future of health care, an area that focuses on improving the relationships between doctors and patients through applications, devices such as smartphones, and communication networks that let clinicians give care and patients receive it.

It's best to look at how this relates specifically to the genetics business through the study released this week by MedCo-Mayo Clinic proving the importance of genetic testing on patients who need to take the blood thinner Warfarin. The study proved the value of using individualized genetic information to establish better drug dosages, and therefore the value of new consumer genetic information for doctors and patients. Eventually, whole genomes will be be stored online, when whole-genome sequencing becomes more affordable. Dan Vorhaus in today's Genomics Law Report, offers a good analysis.

In focusing on the value of data the FCC clearly indicates that it's interested in liberating all types of healthcare data - patient and provider, administrative, research and clinical - from the "proprietary 'siloed' systems that do not communicate with one another and therefore cannot be easily exchanged, aggregated or analyzed." Credit goes to the FCC for recognizing that this is not simply a matter of electronic medical record (EMR) adoption: interoperable data standards, as well as regulatory and policy changes that promote the free flow of data, are needed as well.

The FCC also explicitly recognizes the importance of aggregating data in the area of genomic research: "the analysis of combined genomic, clinical and real-time physiological data (often captured wirelessly) could help researchers better understand the interplay of genetics and the environment." The need to construct rich datasets that combine genomic, environmental and trait data is one that we've written about at the GLR before, but it's good to see the FCC on board as well. Maybe the FCC will send a representative to next month's GET (Genomes, Environments, Traits) conference in Boston

The FCC report also notes that there are "too many barriers between consumers and their health care," and goes on to say:

"Consumers armed with the right information could do a better job managing their own health, demanding higher quality services from their providers and payors and making more informed choices about care. With seamless access to their raw health data including lab data and prescriptions, consumers could plug the information into specialized applications of their choice and get personalized solutions for an untold number of conditions."

All this is to say that while the FCC's conclusions are only recommendations, they point in a direction that treats personal genomics as a key part of the future of healthcare -- as opposed to just as a recreational novelty. This is good news for the development of applications that will make genetic medicine easier for more people to navigate.

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