Washington, DC - October 16, 2008 — Top policymakers, business officials, and academic experts in business and science will gather to debate the ways in which they can advance the implementation of personalized medicine at the Harvard Medical School-Partners HealthCare Personalized Medicine Conference on Nov. 13-14, 2008 in Boston.

The conference, collaboration between the Harvard Medical School-Partners HealthCare Center for Genetics and Genomics and Harvard Business School, will examine the political, economic and scientific issues that affect the adoption of personalized medicine, and look at how medicine and business can be integrated to facilitate it.

A special feature of this year's conference will be a is a symposium on November 12 that will focus on the integration of information technology and personalized medicine and the solutions that have been found to move this field forward.

Key topics at the conference include:

• how genetics can be incorporated into the healthcare system;
• the business outlook for integrating genetics and genomics as a health information tool;
• information technology in personalized medicine;
• how clinical trials and scientific discovery are demonstrating the value of personalized medicine; and
• what value-based purchasing and reimbursement for personalized medicine products might look like in the future.

Among those speaking will be Michael O. Leavitt, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services; Dr. David J. Brailer, founder of Health Evolution Partners and former national coordinator for health information at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Clayton M. Christensen and Richard M.J. Bohmer, both professors at Harvard Business School.

A highlight of the conference will be the Coalition's annual 2008 Leadership in Personalized Medicine Award from the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC), which will go to Secretary Leavitt, for his leadership in engaging government to advance predictive and targeted therapies on a national scale.

The annual PMC award recognizes the contributions of a visionary individual whose actions in science, business or policy have advanced the frontier of personalized medicine. It will be held Nov. 13-14 at the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, Harvard Medical School, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, Massachusetts.

For more information about Personalized Medicine: A Value Proposition, or to register for the conference, visit the conference Web site at http://www.hpcgg.org/PM/2008/index.jsp.

Contact:
Elizabeth Schwinn (eschwinn@personalizedmedicinecoalition.org)
Communications Director
Personalized Medicine Coalition
(202) 589-1770

About the Personalized Medicine Coalition
The Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC), representing a broad spectrum of academic, industrial, patient, provider, and payer communities, seeks to advance the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts and products for the benefit of patients. For more information on the Personalized Medicine Coalition, please visit www.PersonalizedMedicineCoalition.org.