New Center for Precision Health Aims to Transform Population Health, Patient Care

The Duke University School of Medicine has a rich history of translational discovery science leveraging genetics, genomics, and other omic technologies coupled with data science and informatics. With continuing advances in genomics, biomarker technology, and computational biology alongside improvements in electronic health records and machine learning, the CPH will work to bridge discovery science with personalized patient care.

“This collaborative effort will bring together researchers from across Duke that will enable us to improve patient care and help move more discoveries in basic and translational research into clinical care,” said Mary E. Klotman, MD, executive vice president for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. “The Center for Precision Health is poised to become a powerhouse for genetic and genomic discovery, outreach, and education. I’m excited to see what the future holds.”

Svati H. Shah, MD, MHS, Ursula Geller Distinguished Professor of Medicine, has been named director of the CPH. Julie Eckstrand, RPh, will serve as executive director.

“The Center for Precision Health brings together all the essential components needed to transform how we view and use data to care for our patients and improve the health of our communities,” said Duke CTSI Director Susanna Naggie, MD, MHS.  “The work of this center aligns with the strategic priorities of our institute and the health system overall.”

The Center for Precision Health brings together all the essential components needed to transform how we view and use data to care for our patients and improve the health of our communities. The work of this center aligns with the strategic priorities of our institute and the health system overall.

This new center will fuel clinical, translational, and basic science and serve as a foundational network for coalescing the Duke scientific community. The CPH aims to expand genetic discovery and catalyze clinical genetics care, conduct clinically impactful translational research, perform cutting-edge implementation science, engage the community and build trust, and educate the precision health workforce of tomorrow.

The CPH has five programs to enable these goals: population genetics, translational discovery, implementation science, community engagement and ethics, and precision health education. The center will also serve as the scientific and operational home for OneDukeGen, a genomic medicine research study and biorepository that will perform genetic sequencing on 150,000 Duke Health patients and research study participants and will return clinically actionable genetic test results so they may make informed decisions about their health. The CPH will also house the Duke Kannapolis clinical research site and the MURDOCK Study population-based cohort.

The center will have strong ties to the Duke School of Medicine Precision Genomics Collaboratory and Duke AI Health and will collaborate closely with basic science and clinical departments within the school and with the Duke Health System.

“We are so excited about launching the Center for Precision Health,” Shah said. “This will unite many different aspects of precision health, with a focus on research that has impact for Duke patients. This will necessitate multi-disciplinary teams and highly collaborative science.”