Progress in Characterizing the Human Exposome: a Key Step for Precision Medicine.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Health
• Health Informatics
• Precision Medicine

Background:

• Most diseases arise from complex genetic and environmental interactions.
• The exposome encompasses all environmental exposures an individual encounters throughout life.
• Integrating exposome data is vital for advancing precision medicine.

Purpose of the Study:

• To raise awareness in health informatics about environmental data's role in health.
• To highlight the importance of exposome data in precision medicine informatics.
• To encourage informatics expertise in environmental health research.

Main Methods:

• Summary of findings from an International Medical Informatics Association panel.
• Discussion of initiatives presented at MEDINFO 2019.
• Focus on challenges and achievements in processing environmental and social data.

Main Results:

• Four initiatives (PULSE, Digital exposome, Cloudy with a chance of pain, Wearable clinics) showcased.
• Projects demonstrated diverse research methods, data collection technologies, and analytics.
• The field is ready for health informaticians to apply informatics strategies to environmental health.

Conclusions:

• Exposome data applications span disease investigation, healthcare, patient empowerment, and public health.
• Informatics is finding expanding applications in environmental health.
• These applications have significant potential impact on precision medicine.