scholarly journals Precision Medicine: Making It Happen for Malaysia

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
A Rahman A Jamal
Keyword(s):  
Precision Medicine ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The United States ◽  
Genome Database ◽  
Sequencing Project ◽  
Working Together ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Developed Nations ◽  
Privacy And Confidentiality ◽  
Precision Medicine Initiative

Precision medicine is transforming healthcare worldwide and aims to improve the effectiveness of management of many diseases including cancers, other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and also rare diseases. Precision medicine takes into account the individual patient’s genetic, environment and lifestyle data. Developed nations are already embarking on precision medicine initiatives including the 100,000 Genomes England and the Precision Medicine Initiative in the United States (US). The Academy of Sciences Malaysia, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Higher Education are working together to put forward a precision medicine initiative for Malaysia. The key drivers that must be put in place include a strong policy agenda, a national large scale genome sequencing project and with it a national genome database, the implementation of the electronic medical record (EMR) system, a payment and reimbursement system to cover for the genetic testing and the targeted treatment, and putting in place an ecosystem that will support precision medicine. Relevant guidelines and Acts will also need to be developed especially with regard to privacy and confidentiality. The future of precision medicine is now and this will certainly bring better outcome and value to the patients.

scholarly journals Two Threats to Precision Medicine Equity

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supp) ◽  
pp. 629-640
Author(s):  
Dayna Bowen Matthew
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Precision Medicine ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
The United States ◽  
Medical Product ◽  
Great Promise ◽  
Sequencing Technologies ◽  
Legal Duty ◽  
Precision Medicine Initiative

In January 2015, President Barack Obama unveiled the “Precision Medicine Initiative,” a nationwide research effort to help bring an effective, preventive, and therapeutic approach to medicine. The purpose of the initiative is to bring a precise understanding of the genetic and environmental determi­nants of disease into clinical settings across the United States.1 The announcement was coupled with $216 million provided in the President’s proposed budget for a million-person national research cohort including public and private partnerships with academic medical centers, research­ers, foundations, privacy experts, medical ethicists, and medical product innovators. The Initiative promises to expand the use of precision medicine in cancer research and modernize regulatory approval processes for genome sequencing technologies. In response, Congress passed the 21st Century Cures Act in December 2016, authorizing a total of $1.5 billion over 10 years for the program.2 Although the Precision Medicine Initiative heralds great promise for the future of disease treatment and eradication, its implementation and development must be carefully guided to ensure that the millions of federal dollars expended will be spent equitably. This commentary discusses two key threats to the Precision Medicine Initia­tive’s ability to proceed in a manner consis­tent with the United States Constitutional requirement that the federal government shall not “deny to any person . . . the equal protection of the laws.”3 In short, this com­mentary sounds two cautionary notes, in order to advance precision medicine equity. First, achieving precision medicine equity will require scientists and clinicians to fulfill their intellectual, moral, and indeed legal duty to work against abusive uses of preci­sion medicine science to advance distorted views of racial group variation.Precision medicine scientists must decisively denounce and distinguish this Initiative from the pseudo-science of eugenics – the im­moral and deadly pseudo-science that gave racist and nationalist ideologies what Troy Duster called a “halo of legitimacy” during the first half of the 20th century.4 Second, to combat the social threat to precision medicine, scientists must incorporate a comprehensive, ecological understanding of the fundamental social and environ­mental determinants of health outcomes in all research. Only then will the Precision Medicine Initiative live up to its potential to improve and indeed transform health care delivery for all patients, regardless of race, color, or national origin.Ethn Dis: 2019;29(Suppl 3):629-640; doi:10.18865/ed.29.S3.629

scholarly journals Cultures of light: Electric light in the United States, 1890s-1950s

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Margaret Maile Petty
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Light Industry ◽  
Electric Light ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

<p>Cultures of Light is set within a period that stretches from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century in the United States, an era in which nearly every aspect of American life was impacted to a lesser or greater degree by the introduction, distribution and integration of electric power and light. By no means attempting to comprehensively examine the impact and effects of this expansive transformation, this thesis has a narrow but meaningful target, defined by key intersections of electric lighting and American culture. Primarily concerned with the investigation of culturally bound ideas and practices as mediated through electric light and its applications, my thesis is focused on particular instances of this interplay. These include its role in supporting nationalizing narratives and agendas through large-scale demonstrations at world’s fairs and exhibitions, in the search for and expression of modernism and its variations in the United States. Similarly electricity and electric light throughout the better part of the twentieth century was scaled to the level of the individual through a number of mechanisms and narratives. Most prominently the electric light industry employed gendered discourses, practices and beliefs in their efforts to grow the market, calling upon the assistance of a host of cultural influencers, from movie stars to architects to interior designers, instigating a renegotiation of established approaches to the design of architecture and the visual environment. Connecting common themes and persistent concerns across these seemingly disparate subject areas through the examination of cultural beliefs, practices, rituals and traditions, Cultures of Light seeks to illustrate the deep and lasting significance of electric light within American society in the twentieth century.</p>

Globalizing the Scientific Bandwagon: Trajectories of Precision Medicine in China and Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 192-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry Au ◽  
Renan Gonçalves Leonel da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Precision Medicine ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Dynamic Network ◽  
The United States ◽  
Biomedical Sciences ◽  
Biomedical Knowledge ◽  
Strong State ◽  
Institutional Void ◽  
History Of ◽  
Private Actors

Precision medicine (PM) is emerging as a scientific bandwagon within the contemporary biomedical sciences in the United States. PM brings together concepts and tools from genomics and bioinformatics to develop better diagnostics and therapies based on individualized information. Developing countries like China and Brazil have also begun pursuing PM projects, motivated by a desire to claim genomic sovereignty over its population. In spite of commonalities, institutional arrangements produced by the history of genomics research in China and Brazil are ushering PM along different trajectories. In the Chinese case, we identify a strong state-backed push for PM combined with a dynamic network of international academic and private actors along the lines of networked technonationalism that has made large-scale, speculative PM projects possible. The Brazilian case is characterized by an institutional void at the federal level in which PM is driven by domestic academic actors in universities in the regional level, resulting in smaller scale, needs-driven PM projects. Through these cases, this paper shows how a scientific bandwagon adapts to national histories and institutions. Through this peripheral translation of the scientific bandwagon, the global infrastructure of biomedical knowledge has the potential to be transformed.

scholarly journals Public attitudes towards algorithmic personalization and use of personal data online: Evidence from Germany, Great Britain, and the US

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Kozyreva ◽  
Philipp Lorenz-Spreen ◽  
Ralph Hertwig ◽  
Stephan Lewandowsky ◽  
Stefan Michael Herzog
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Data Privacy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
People’S Attitudes ◽  
The Individual

Despite their ubiquity online, personalization algorithms and the associated large-scale collection of personal data have largely escaped public scrutiny. Yet policy makers who wish to introduce regulations that respect people's attitudes towards privacy and algorithmic personalization on the Internet would greatly benefit from knowing how people perceive different aspects of personalization and data collection. To contribute to an empirical foundation for this knowledge, we surveyed public attitudes using representative online samples in Germany, Great Britain, and the United States on key aspects of algorithmic personalization and on people's data privacy concerns and behavior. Our findings show that people object to the collection and use of sensitive personal information and to the personalization of political campaigning and, in Germany and Great Britain, to the personalization of news sources. Encouragingly, attitudes are independent of political preferences: People across the political spectrum share the same concerns about their data privacy and the effects of personalization on news and politics. We also found that people are more accepting of personalized services than of the collection of personal data and information currently collected for these services. This acceptability gap---the difference between the acceptability of personalized online services and the acceptability of the collection and use of data and information---in people's attitudes can be observed at both the aggregate and the individual level. Our findings suggest a need for transparent algorithmic personalization that respects people’s data privacy, can be easily adjusted, and does not extend to political advertising.

Author Reply: Illuminating the Health Benefits of Psychological Assets

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-74
Author(s):  
Rosalba Hernandez ◽  
Sarah M. Bassett ◽  
Stephanie A. Schuette ◽  
Eva W. Shiu ◽  
Judith T. Moskowitz
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Precision Medicine ◽  
Environmental Context ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Author Reply ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Precision Medicine Initiative

This reply addresses observations of Drs. Larsen, Kruse, and Sweeny, and Scherer in their reviews of our published work on the link between positive psychological assets and outcomes of physical health. Inspired by Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative we argue that the interplay between the emotion spectrum and health is likely a complex and heterogeneous amalgam of known and yet unidentified elements melding at the individual level. When exploring the emotion–health link, researchers are challenged to grapple with complex system models by considering multiple hierarchies of information that span individual-level factors, genetic blueprints, and cultural and environmental context. Research is needed to more fully elucidate the mechanism through which emotion influences health, with careful consideration of differences across race/ethnicity, culture, and context.

scholarly journals CULTURE OF INTERETHNIC RELATIONS IN THE STRUCTURE OF HUMANITARIAN EDUCATION

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. V. Levcheniuk
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
The United States ◽  
Stable Set ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Interethnic Relations ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
The Individual

Goal. To carry out socio-philosophical conceptualization of the phenomenon of culture of interethnic relations as a factor of interaction between representatives of different cultures and nationalities. Today, culture is one of the identifiers in the modern world, which determines the originality and uniqueness of nations and ethnic groups. Theoretical basis. The authors proved that the culture of interethnic relations is a direct dialogue between representatives of different nationalities, which allows the existence and development of national culture in modern society (mass, virtual, global, information) and so on. It is substantiated that the main condition and consequence of the interaction of representatives of different nationalities and ethnic groups is the recognition of their originality and uniqueness, at the same time there is a formation of global identity, i.e. there is an awareness of the need to live together. Scientific novelty. It is substantiated that at the present stage of development, society is in a state of radical large-scale, systemic transformations. Humankind needs to learn the culture of interethnic relations, as modern migration flows change the cultural picture around the world, in particular in the United States and Western Europe. The culture of "aging" Europe is changing significantly under the pressure of migratory flows, which assert their own culture and religion. Conclusions. The beginning of the XXI century characterized by the development of post-globalization, which simultaneously affirms the global and national identity. Humankind recognizes the fact that political and economic factors are secondary to culture and religion, which are the main identifiers of nations and ethnic groups. It is culture that accumulates in itself the necessary, stable set of symbols, which both at the individual and collective level are the defining features of ethnic groups, nations, states. The nation or the state which is able to answer affirmatively the question "who are we?" is successful and strong at the geopolitical level.

scholarly journals Cultures of light: Electric light in the United States, 1890s-1950s

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Margaret Maile Petty
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Light Industry ◽  
Electric Light ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

<p>Cultures of Light is set within a period that stretches from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century in the United States, an era in which nearly every aspect of American life was impacted to a lesser or greater degree by the introduction, distribution and integration of electric power and light. By no means attempting to comprehensively examine the impact and effects of this expansive transformation, this thesis has a narrow but meaningful target, defined by key intersections of electric lighting and American culture. Primarily concerned with the investigation of culturally bound ideas and practices as mediated through electric light and its applications, my thesis is focused on particular instances of this interplay. These include its role in supporting nationalizing narratives and agendas through large-scale demonstrations at world’s fairs and exhibitions, in the search for and expression of modernism and its variations in the United States. Similarly electricity and electric light throughout the better part of the twentieth century was scaled to the level of the individual through a number of mechanisms and narratives. Most prominently the electric light industry employed gendered discourses, practices and beliefs in their efforts to grow the market, calling upon the assistance of a host of cultural influencers, from movie stars to architects to interior designers, instigating a renegotiation of established approaches to the design of architecture and the visual environment. Connecting common themes and persistent concerns across these seemingly disparate subject areas through the examination of cultural beliefs, practices, rituals and traditions, Cultures of Light seeks to illustrate the deep and lasting significance of electric light within American society in the twentieth century.</p>

Digital Government and Individual Privacy

2005 ◽  
pp. 870-874
Author(s):  
Patrick R. Mullen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Government ◽  
Related Concept ◽  
Digital Government ◽  
Individual Privacy ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Privacy And Confidentiality

Individual privacy is freedom from excessive intrusion by those seeking personal information about the individual. This allows the individual to choose the extent and circumstances under which personal information will be shared with others. A related concept, confidentiality, is a status accorded to information based on a decision, agreement, obligation, or duty. This status requires that the recipient of personal information must control disclosure. While privacy and confidentiality are concepts that can be applied to people in all societies, this article discusses them in relation to their treatment by the United States government, in particular with the advent of digital government. The concepts associated with digital government can also apply to non-Americans as well, but the discussion in this article is based on U.S. laws, documents, and relevant literature.

scholarly journals ForestSim Model of Impacts of Smallholder Dynamics: Forested Landscapes of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrey L. Mayer ◽  
Mark D. Rouleau
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The United States ◽  
Landscape Scale ◽  
Upper Peninsula ◽  
Forested Landscapes ◽  
Individual Decisions ◽  
New Policies ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Many forested landscapes in the United States contain a large number of small private landowners (smallholders). The individual decisions of these smallholders can collectively have a large impact on the structure, composition, and connectivity of forests. While models have been developed to try to understand this large-scale collective impact, few models have incorporated extensive information from individual decision-making. Here we introduce an agent-based model, infused with sociological data from smallholders, overlaid on a GIS layer to represent individual smallholders, and used to simulate the impact of thousands of harvesting decisions. Our preliminary results suggest that certain smallholder characteristics (such as relative smallholder age and education level as well as whether a smallholder is resident or absentee) and information flow among owners can radically impact forests at the landscape scale. While still in its preliminary stages, this modeling approach is likely to demonstrate in detail the consequences of decision-making due to changing smallholder demographics or new policies and programs. This approach can help estimate the effectiveness of programs based on landscape-scale programmatic goals and the impact of new policy initiatives.

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