Barriers To Bioinformatics: Why Doesn’t Your Doctor Have Digital Diagnostics Yet?

Tom Slezak, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories

Stevenson Hall 1300
11:00 AM - 11:50 AM

Driven by advances in bioinformatics and diagnostics technologies, a wide range of infectious disease diagnostics are available and widely used in research. From multiplex PCR to pan-microbial microarrays to NextGen Sequencing of complex samples, sensitive and specific identification of harmful pathogens can be made. But these are not yet available in your doctor’s office or HMO lab, in most cases. This talk will identify some of the many Valley of Death barriers that must be overcome before we can bring the dreams of precision (personalized) medicine and mobile medicine to fruition. Although focused on medical diagnostics, most of the material discussed here applies equally well to other fields where regulations, IP, or historical inertia of practitioners can stall your CS-led breakthrough ideas for years.