A Community-based Approach toward Advancing Personalized Medicine in Underserved Populations

The project brings local and statewide relevance to the nationally supported NIH “Precision Medicine Initiative.” The impact of recent advances in the genomic era will be fully realized only if genetic knowledge is equally accessible and fully understandable to all members of our society. By partnering with members of the Minnesota Hmong community, and using community-based, linguistically and culturally sensitive approaches, we aim to increase inclusion and understanding about variations of genes that influence medication effectiveness, called very important pharmacogenes. As these select pharmacogenes modulate response to drug therapy, the overall goal is to mitigate the otherwise growing health disparities of knowledge, significance, and application of this information to members of our Hmong community and the clinicians that treat them. Advancing our knowledge of genomic data in unique populations is expected to improve clinical decision making for the selection and use of common therapeutic medications that impact clinical outcomes.