Realizing the Promise of Precision Medicine: The Role of Patient Data, Mobile Technology, and Consumer Engagement explains the potential of personalized medicine and the value of those approaches in making that potential a reality. The book helps transform one-size-fits-all healthcare into a system that focuses on individual needs and the unique needs of each family member, discussing topics such as U.S. sponsored precision medicine initiative, genomics, the role of electronic health records and mobile medicine, patient engagement and empowerment, health information exchange and patient data protection. In addition, the book discusses the barriers and limitations of precision medicine and how to overcome them. Readers will find valuable insights into how big data, patient engagement, mobile technology, and genomics help individualize medical care and offer a pathway to help detect many undiscovered causes of diseases.

In his highly regarded blog, Life as a Healthcare CIO, John Halamka records his experiences with health IT leadership, infrastructure, applications, policies, management, governance, and standardization of data. But he also muses on topics such as reducing our carbon footprint, sustainable farming, mountain climbing, being a husband, father and son, and living life to its fullest. During his remarkable career, beginning when he ran a 35-person company that specialized in business process automation while he was an undergraduate at Stanford and a medical student at UCSF, to his current positions at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Halamka has demonstrated a unique blend of technical, clinical, and leadership knowledge and skills. Under his leadership, BIDMC has had many successes in health IT: first hospital in the country to attest to Meaningful Use, early personal health record adoption, innovation in the use of web-based provider order entry, rapid adoption of iPads, and one of the first vendor-neutral image archives. As Aneesh Chopra, former US Chief Technology Officer, writes in the Foreword of this book, "John Halamka is among the few health IT leaders with success in three sectors of our economy-public, private, and academic. No matter the role you find yourself playing in the industry, you will surely find inspiration in John Halamka's words."