The goal of the Personal Health Lab is to explore the integration of diagnostics, therapeutics, and clinical responses for the prevention, early detection and early treatment of disease.

The Personal Health Lab grew from the idea that William M. Castell, former President and CEO of GE Healthcare and current Chairman of the Wellcome Trust, proposed at the inaugural Pacific Health Summit that decision-makers need metrics to track countries' progress in adopting preventive health measures. Over time, the Lab evolved to include personal health with a primary focus on personalized medicine. The Lab is designed to facilitate collaborations and provide tools for leaders in the field as well as leverage emerging technologies that allow the medical community to target patients' unique profiles.

The Forum for Personal Health

• The Forum for Personal Health brought together top leaders from the US and international health systems to address key health challenges and to initiate innovative projects in the area of personal health.
• The Forum's initial track was personalized medicine. The overarching goal for this effort was to develop an international network of healthcare providers and industry leaders committed to improving healthcare and reducing costs through a systematic process of discovery, validation, and application of molecular diagnostics.

Targeted, Outcome-Oriented Meetings.

• The inaugural meeting of the Forum for Personal Health was held on June 18, 2009 at the conclusion of the Pacific Health Summit.
• In October 2007, the NBR Center for Health and Aging and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences presented a workshop on how traditional approaches to health and medicine could be the key to helping us continue to enjoy the successes of our advancing economies and societies. Sponsored by Coca-Cola's Beverage Institute for Health & Wellness and Intel, this workshop focused on traditional medicine and systems biology, behavior and technology, and economics and policy. This workshop built on the Lab's 2006 publication, Integrating People and Approaches Toward Personal Health. Featured participants included the Chinese Minister of Health, Zhu Chen and Leroy Hood, President of the Institute for Systems Biology. To view a full report of the 2007 Beijing Personal Health workshop please click here.
• At the 2007 Pacific Health Summit Lee Hartwell, President and Director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Co-Chair of the Summit's Steering Committee, presented a workshop on Molecular Diagnostics. The discussion focused on resource allocation in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, as well as on engaging different players in the process, such as physicians, payers, patients, and researchers. Dr. Hartwell's call to action was to create a new pipeline for diagnostic testing–different from the typical drug pipeline–that would provide a framework for validating, implementing, and approving diagnostics.

Health Initiative (EHI)

The Early Health Initiative, a project that ran from 2005-2006, focused on metrics that promote and measure early health practices. The EHI focused on three core areas:

• Biosurveillance–Understanding how existing systems can promote early health.
• Metrics–Acquiring data.
• Diagnostics–Emphasizing the importance of early detection.

For more Summit publications, please click here.

• Another Tsunami Warning: Caring for Japan’s Elderly
  In this op-ed piece first published by The National Bureau of Asian Research, Dr. Michael Birt, Executive Director of the Summit, discusses how the devastating experience for Japan’s aging population during the tragedies of March 11 reflects the ongoing crisis of Japan’s demographic shift.
• East Meets West - Staying Healthy vs. Curing Disease
  Summit 2006 Breakout Session Report.
• Fighting Fat - Preparing for the Global Obesity Epidemic
  Summit 2006 Breakout Session Report.