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POINT: Are we prepared for the future doctor visit?

Nature Biotechnology volume 29, pages 215–218 (2011)Cite this article

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Tomorrow's routine checkup

Either on this visit or a previous one, Jane's full genome has been sequenced, noninvasively, using a buccal swab. At the same time, and optionally on every visit, the nurse has sampled and sequenced the metagenome of the microbiome pool resident in the patient's mucosal and gastrointestinal cavities, providing a detailed characterization of the population of microbes commensal with the human host. Messenger RNA, microRNA, proteome and metabolome profiles may be gathered from urine and, if necessary, whole blood and other tissues. Finally, in addition to height and weight, a large panel of physiological parameters and images is monitored, capturing detailed information about respiration, endocrine function, cardiac and brain activity, and so on.

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Figure 1: Layers of genomic and network-based information in integrative healthcare.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to G. Siuzdak and S. Choi for helpful comments on the manuscript. T.I. is a David and Lucille Packard Fellow and was funded by a grant from the US National Institutes of Health (RR031228). S.H.F. is funded in part by the National Cancer Institute Centers for Cancer Systems Biology (CCSB) Program and the State of Washington Life Sciences Discovery Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stephen H. Friend is at Sage Bionetworks, Seattle, Washington, USA.,

    Stephen H Friend

  2. Trey Ideker is in the Departments of Medicine and Bioengineering, University of California, La Jolla, California, USA, and at The Institute for Genomic Medicine, University of California, La Jolla, California, USA. friend@sagebase.org or tideker@ucsd.edu,

    Trey Ideker

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Friend, S., Ideker, T. POINT: Are we prepared for the future doctor visit?. Nat Biotechnol 29, 215–218 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.1794

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