STC Together with Dr. Walkter Dehority Release a New Look at Personalized Medicine
Industry: Healthcare
A new look at applying personalized medicine applied to vaccines, known as “vaccinomics”
SCOTTSDALE, AZ (PRUnderground) January 25th, 2017
STC (Scientific Technologies Corporation, a leader in immunization intelligence™) together with Dr. Walter Dehority, (Pediatric Infectious Disease specialist and Associate Professor with the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center), today released a new look at applying personalized medicine applied to vaccines, known as “vaccinomics” (pronounced with a long “o”, as in “genomics”).
PERSONALIZED MEDICINE VS. THE SANSABELT. To start, Dr. Dehority explained why we should care about the vaccination version of personalized medicine: “The easiest way to start thinking about personalized medicine is to think about pharmacogenomics, and how we could match dosages of drugs to patients. Right now, a 70 year-old woman who weighs 40 kilos (about 88 pounds) and a 25 year-old lineman for the Dallas Cowboys are both going to get the same dosage; that is, the ‘adult dosage.’ That’s ‘the Sansabelt Approach.’ Instead of creating a custom suit, you just let one size fit all.” However, once a vaccine can be adapted to an individual’s genetics, much would change.
THE DIFFERENCE IT WOULD MAKE: one example of the need for vaccinomics. For instance, there’s a current outbreak of mumps in Arkansas, mostly among college-age kids. A fair percentage of those kids received their recommended vaccines. Dr. Dehority says, “What probably has happened with the vaccinated kids is that the immunity wasn’t sustained. And there’s probably a genetic underpinning. If we could identify the genetics, then we could deal with the lack of immunity, maybe adding another dose before college.”
WHEN WILL WE SEE IT? THE “TRICKLE-IN EFFECT. So, vaccinomics sounds great, even inevitable. However, the complexity of the immune system, with its thousands of genes, has Dr. Dehority convinced that vaccinomics will arrive slowly, vaccine by vaccine: “There will eventually be a breakthrough – there are researchers out there who will come up with a way to apply genomics to a specific immunization – it might be measles or whooping cough or something else, we can’t really say. That will be the start; then, maybe three years later there will be another one; then a year after that, another. We don’t know the order, but it’s likely they will trickle in.”
How long will it take? Well, breakthroughs don’t have a schedule. However, given the momentum behind personalized medicine, we can be certain that we’ll be hearing much more about vaccinomics.
About STChealth
STChealth’s mission is to eradicate vaccine preventable disease and empower individuals through our innovative technology and service solutions. We deliver on our mission through passion and innovation, through teamwork and inclusion, through superior client service and products, and a relentless pursuit of the next ”big idea” that will advance immunization intelligence. Starting with developing the first Immunization Information System (IIS) and over 35 years of experience in the immunization ecosystem, STChealth is positioned today to support more than 1/3 of COVID-19 vaccinations reported in the U.S. through our network of over 70,000 Providers and Pharmacy Partners. More information can be found at www.STChealth.com
