Health leads the project Futur Clinic which will study the genome of the patient and designing more effective treatments.

– will allow to search more effective treatments in diseases such as breast cancer

– genetic data will be integrated into the Agency of health information systems

– involves the creation of the first Office strategy of Bioinformatics of the Conselleria

-the project has a consortium of entities in the sector of technologies

Valencia, 2011-December the Minister of health, Luis Rosado, has presented last Tuesday in the center of research Prince Philip project Future Clinic ”. This project, led by the Catalan Government, through the Ministry of health and economy, industry and commerce, aims to investigate in methodologies and techniques necessary to incorporate genomic data from the patient that will make possible the application of genomic medicine personalised in the health system to the Valencian Agency of health information systems.

In this way, the data obtained allow diagnosis and identification of the most effective treatment for each patient and will be integrated in current clinical information systems of the Valencian Agency for health. This work also aims to enhance the performance of the public health network in implementing projects based on information technologies, such as the electronic medical history, telemedicine, the appointment by internet or electronic recipe.

The Future Clinic project also envisages the creation of the first strategic Office in Bioinformatics that will allow the study of the genome of patients with the purpose of subsequently design a personalized and adapted to the patient medical treatment. At the base of this purpose is the relevance of the genome in determining susceptibility to disease, tolerance to drugs, and response to treatment.

The Minister of health has highlighted the relevance of a project which is a step in the introduction of the personalized medicine in healthcare provision at all stages: prevention, identification and treatment ”.

As pilot disease breast cancer

The development of the project, breast cancer has been the disease chosen in function of studies farmacoeconómicos and morbidity. Cancer includes a set of 200 diseases of great impact, and is one of the leading causes of death in the Western world and also in Spain, so it represents a priority health problem.

Early detection is one of the key factors to bring forward the time of diagnosis and the application of treatment in detectable preclinical stage, fact that in certain tumor locations may have clear benefits in terms of survival, quality of life and health and social costs.

In addition, Future Clinic responds to the need to define and implement in Spain programs for early detection of breast cancer and develop strategic coordination mechanisms to achieve a more efficient use of resources and health information systems.

Among the objectives, the project will undertake a study of technologies needed for the integration of genomic data from patients, including both the computational components and communications which will be necessary for its interface with existing health systems.

This project will study technologies and solutions to help the diagnosis to incorporate the genome of the patient and the genome of the disease, clinical analysis.

As pointed out Luis Rosado, Future Clinic aims to advance the knowledge and experience on the genomic information in the entire process, from the collection of samples and their sequencing to clinical decision-making ”.

The project envisages the application of Genomic sequencing in real clinical cases with clinical groups of Valencia. The objective is to develop a comprehensive system that allows to use genomic data for diagnosis and prognosis. Clinical groups will collaborate in the definition of data needed in the clinic and the most appropriate interface so that the doctor see this information.

A project pioneer

The Future Clinic project is a pioneer in the preparation of the scenario for the implementation of the genomic personalized medicine through the incorporation of genomic data from patients. The project has been funded by the Ministry of health and the Ministry of economy, industry and trade; and its development has been established a consortium in which the sector of information technologies in the biotechnology sector and various technology centres are involved.

Partners such as Indra Sistemas, Bull Spain, and Iprocuratio management consultants are among the sector of information technologies. The partners in the field of biotechnology are the Institute for genomic medicine (when), GEM BioSoft and VeraTech for Health. The research of the project is funded by technology centres in the ICT sector both in the field of biotechnology: the technological Institute of computer science (ITI), the Foundation for health and biomedical research of the Comunitat Valenciana (FISABIO), the Centro de Investigación Prince Felipe (CIPF)the Centre for research in Software production methods (PRoS), and the Group of Grid and high performance computing (I3M-GryCAp).

The Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics Research Center Prince Philip, led by researcher Joaquin Dopazo, collaborates as project partner in the provision of knowledge on the analysis of genomic data and capacities related to the application in clinic and medicine custom of these new technologies.