The concept of precision medicine is cresting the healthcare/technology convergence wave, and it’s been a hot topic of discussion this year. Recently, at two vastly different professional forums (one centered on health, one on technology), conversation around precision medicine provided the common denominator. Interestingly, the subject produces commentary and presentations from physicians who sound much like technologists, and from technology industry scions who sound much like medical theorists. It is evident that the potential of this cross-disciplinary field excites representatives from both spheres—even as it raises serious issues about practicality and scalability, it signifies unheralded opportunity.

At the Medical World Americas Conference and Expo 2016 in Houston, James Versalovic, M.D., Ph.D., head of the pathology department at Texas Children’s Hospital, spoke about personalized medicine and technology’s role in improving diagnosis in healthcare. He noted that digitalization is already guiding decision making, estimating that 70 percent of data in electronic health records (EHRs) are generated by pathology…