Pharmacogenetics allows us to identify differences in how people respond to drugs based on their unique genetic makeup.

Genetic variations can affect the function of enzymes involved in drug metabolism, leading to both adverse drug events and toxicity as well as treatment failure.

Routine pharmacogenetic testing has been shown to improve outcomes and save costs but yet it is still underutilized.

Our guest today is out to change that. Kristine Ashcraft is CEO of YouScript, a company offering unique pharmacogenetic information and an Electronic Medical Record integraed software solution.

Prasun Mishra, Ph.D. President and CEO of the American Association for Precision Medicine (AAPM) and chair of the AAPM Coronavirus Taskforce (ACT) discussing the unique challenges of a fighting a pandemic in this modern era of globalization, frequent travel and porous national borders in which the world has become "one big home"

Of the measures available to us to combat #covid19, what should be our priority?

Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff to Barack Obama and Mayor of City of Chicago famously said, "Never let a crisis go wasted."

What lessons can we learn from the current Covid-19 crisis?

Prasun Mishra, Ph.D. President and CEO of the American Association for Precision Medicine (AAPM) and chair of the AAPM Coronavirus Taskforce (ACT)

Prasun Mishra, Ph.D. President and CEO of the American Association for Precision Medicine (AAPM)- and chair of the AAPM Coronavirus Taskforce (ACT) joins us on the The Personalized Diagnostics Podcast during this global pandemic.

- Is the novel coronavirus mutating and has a potential to become more contagious?

- Strategies to combat COVID-19?

- Will things get better before they get worse?

- Therapies in development for the novel coronavirus?

- The story behind formation of ACT- AAPMs Coronavirus Taskforce

- What lessons we'll be able to learn from this crisis?

Will people lose their jobs due to increased #automation and artificial intelligence applications?

"There's a difference between your 'work' and your 'job.' "

The tasks you perform or the #work you do may not be the essence of your job.

"There is a well-known 'Amazon paradox,' which is that as Amazon was increasing the amount of automation in their warehouses and distribution facilities, they were actually increasing their hiring rate."

What are some of the misconceptions surrounding #AI?

A focus on “artificial general intelligence” – the stuff of 1950’s science fiction and concerns of robots taking over the world - “What could you do if you had a machine that is able to act and think and be just like a human,” seems to be going away somewhat.

This #focus is being replaced by realistic concerns and a focus on what it is possible to achieve with specific narrow applications that can solve real problems today - not at some point in the future.

There’s still a lot of misunderstanding surrounding Artificial #Intelligence. When two people talk about #AI, they are quite likely not even talking about the same thing.

To eliminate confusion and facilitate understanding, Cognilytica focuses on the 7 Patterns of AI:

Conversation and Human Interaction

Recognition

Patterns and Anomalies

Predictive Analytics

Autonomous Systems

Hyperpersonalization

Goal Directed Systems

Kathleen Walch and Ron Schmelzer, managing partners of the Artificial Intelligence-focused advisory firm Cognilytica

The 7 patterns of #AI

"How can we regulate something that is continuously evolving?"

"Are we focusing on the wrong thing?"

"Where's my flying car?"

and much more... That's this week on the Personalized Diagnostics Podcast

One of the promises of precision #medicine is the ability to iterate and incorporate new #information in real-time, rather than having to wait months or years to incorporate new findings into patient treatment decisions.

Have we reached the point where information or data that we observe in patients this week can be used to enhance our ability to treat patients next week?