BePRECISE Content Guidelines for accuracy and adequacy in Precision Medicine

The The BePRECISE consortium has published guidelines aimed at improving precision, safety, and health equity in precision medicine. These are all critical operational issues that have been largely overlooked. The paper appears inside Natural Medicine and the lead author is Siew S. Lim, from Health Systems and Equity at Monash University.

It has been difficult to resolve the differences in particular: In 2021, researchers estimated the proportion of samples from people who European descent included in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) was 86.3 percent.

BePRECISE stands for “Better Precision-data Reporting of Evidence from Clinical Intervention Studies & Epidemiology.” It has a team of experts based in low-, middle- and high-income countries committed to improving the reporting standards of quality medical research. These include 23 experts in precision medicine, cardiometabolic diseases, statistics, editorial, and life experience.

The Consortium encourages researchers, analysts, funders and regulators to adopt their guidelines to promote the correct clinical use of appropriate medicines. The checklist is expected to improve the quality and comparison of relevant medical studies, promoting the development of health care for all. Available at www.be-precise.org.

This list consists of 23 items organized into five categories that correspond to the common categories of scientific publishing. A section on health equity aims to promote appropriate medical research to include individuals and communities that are typically underrepresented in medical research and/or underserved by health systems.

The group says it wants to advance precision medicine by promoting transparency, inclusion, and high-quality research methods.

For example, the Sydney Brenner Center for Molecular Biosciences (SBIMB) at the University of the Witwatersrand is researching African genetic heritage. Their group aims to establish an African Genomics research center focused on strengthening the continent’s capacity to analyze large-scale genome, transcriptome and epigenomic issues with the aim of promoting appropriate medical practice in Africa.

“Africa and its people will contribute to global solutions in the field of precision medicine because of their genetic diversity and difficult environment. They should not be left behind, but the potential benefits it will need to produce and share research data and report results in accordance with international best practices,” said Michèle Ramsay, director of the department. SBIMBmember of the BePRECISE consortium that developed the guidelines, and co-author of the paper.

He added, “The BePRECISE list is an important tool to ensure that research studies can be compared, and that similarities and differences can be accurately assessed, to avoid equal disqualification for all African people.”

The chairman of the guidelines committee, Paul Franks, University of Lund, Sweden, said, “Precise medicine seeks to organize health care according to individual characteristics, which are responsible for different people. [dissimilar] type of diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, mental illnesses, musculoskeletal disorders and infectious diseases. However, this difference, combined with different research methods, has created difficulties in comparing studies and implementing findings in the field. ”