Are we ready for medical treatment based on a patient's racial and ethnic background?

In 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration licensed the first medicine approved to treat patients of a particular race or ethnicity. The drug's name is BiDil, and it is used along with other heart medicines to treat heart failure in black patients. While BiDil opened the door to so-called race-based therapeutics, newer technologies and a clearer understanding of the underpinnings of many diseases could usher in an era of treatment based on a patient's racial and ethnic background. Still, the practice of studying, developing and prescribing therapies based on race and ethnicity is not without controversy as well as ethical concerns that could impact health care worldwide.

To explore the rationale, value and concerns of treatments based on race and ethnicity, Georgetown University is hosting a national conference to explore the state of race-based therapeutics on October 6th through the 8th, 2010. Sponsored by Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC), Georgetown University Law Center and the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, the conference entitled "Navigating the Road to Personalized Medicine: Scientific, Ethical and Public Policy Issues Surrounding the Development of Race-Based Therapeutics" will be held the New Research Building on the GUMC campus in Washington, DC.

"After decades of consideration, the recognition that diagnosis and treatment of many diseases needed to be gender-specific has lead to improved health care for women," says Kathryn Sandberg, PhD, professor of medicine and director of the Georgetown University Center for the Study of Sex Differences in Health, Aging and Disease. "Now, in the 21st century, a new crossroads exists and it is essential to determine if there is evidence that better health would be achieved for all if race, ethnicity and gender were considered in screening, diagnosis and treatment for many diseases that puts the conference in context"

Sandberg is the conference organizer along with Anne Sumner, MD, a clinical investigator at National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and professor of medicine at GUMC.

In addition to lectures and panel discussions about issues related to race-based therapeutics, conference speakers and participants will develop recommendations to enhance the development of future research and guide public policy. These recommendations will be presented made at the conclusion of the three-day conference.

This timely and provocative conference is open, at no charge, to students, scientists and fellows from the fields of medicine, ethics, philosophy and law as well as members of the public. Attendees are encouraged to pre-register here: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e30q22x9981e0435&llr=6x7gy8dab

Members of the press should register by notifying Karen Mallet at km463@georgetown.edu.

Speakers and topics include:

"Health Disparities in Biomedical Research"

John Ruffin, PhD

Director, National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities

National Institutes of Health

"Ethical Issues Surrounding Race-Based Therapeutics"

Vanessa Northington Gamble, MD, PhD

Professor, Medical Humanities and History

George Mason University

"The Genetics of Race and Disease: How Important is Race?"

Charles N. Rotimi, PhD

Director, Center for Research on Genomics and Global Health

NIH Intramural Center for Genomics and Health Disparities

"The Contributions of Systems Medicine to the Study of Race and Ethnicity"

Howard Federoff, MD, PhD

Executive Vice President for Health Sciences

Georgetown University Medical Center

Executive Dean

Georgetown University School of Medicine

"Heart Disease in Black and White: Risk and Race"

Anne E. Sumner, MD

Clinical Investigator, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Adjunct Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism

Georgetown University Medical Center

"Race-based Therapeutics: The Story Begins with BiDil"

Robert Temple, MD

Acting Director, Office of Drug Evaluation and Research

Deputy Director, Clinical Science

Food and Drug Administration

"Race-based Therapeutics and the Law"

M. Gregg Bloche, JD, MD,

Co-director, Georgetown-Johns Hopkins Joint Program in Law and Public Health

Georgetown University Law Center

"Revealing Racial Differences in Cardiac Risk and Cardiac Care"

Kim A. Williams, MD

Professor of Medicine; Director, Nuclear Cardiology

The University of Chicago Medical Center

"Genetic Epidemiology of Complex Diseases in Ethnic Populations"

Ellen Velie, PhD, MPH

Associate Professor, Epigenetics

Michigan State University

"What Has the LUMIINA and PROFILE Studies Taught Us About Race and Autoimmune Disease?"

Graciela S. Alarcón, MD, MPH

Jane Knight Lowe Chair of Medicine in Rheumatology

The University of Alabama at Birmingham

"Race and Animal Models: Benefits and Challenges"

Kathryn Sandberg, PhD

Conference Organizer

Director, Georgetown University Center for the Study of Sex Differences in Health, Aging and Disease

Georgetown University

"Race-based Therapeutics from a Drug Discovery Angle"

Milton Brown, MD, PhD

Edwin H. Richard and Elisabeth Richard von Matsch Endowed Chair in Experimental Therapeutics

Director, Drug Discovery Program

Georgetown University Medical Center

For the entire conference agenda, please visit the registration website: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e30q22x9981e0435&llr=6x7gy8dab

Provided by Georgetown University Medical Center