Is your prescription good for you?

The lecture series Crossroads: Ideas for a New Century will conclude its 2008-09 season on Saturday, May 23, 7:30 p.m. at Orcas Center.  Russ Altman, Professor of Bioengineering, Genetics and Medicine at Stanford University, will speak on Personalized Medicine: Prescribing the Right Drugs Based on Your Genes.

The current process for approving drugs ensures that drugs are safe and effective … on average.  But not all patients respond in the same way to all drugs.  For some people, a particular medication may work well with no side effects, while for others the same prescription may be ineffective or yield side effects that are unbearable. Of the many factors that account for these differences, one of the most important is genetic variability.

Our response to some drugs, it seems, may “run in the family,” and these variations become especially important when the drugs involved can pose risks at either too high or too low a dose.  Dr. Altman will help us understand this new approach to medicine by reviewing the basic concepts of pharmacology and genetics, and will discuss how health care providers may use genetics to find the right drug at the right dose for each patient.

Dr. Altman describes his work as “a dialogue between the engineer and the physician” within him.  He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard College, and went on to earn both an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Medical Information Sciences at Stanford, where he now serves as Professor of Biomedical Computation and Chair of the Department of Bioengineering.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and has served as President of the International Society for Computational Biology.  His extensive publications have helped to establish the field of “personalized medicine,” which includes not only prescribing drugs  but other individualized approaches such as guiding surgical decisions. 

At the same time, he is among the most highly regarded teachers at Stanford, and is a past recipient of the Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching at Stanford Medical School.

The Crossroads series presents thoughtful, provocative speakers who help the Orcas community think about timely issues, both local and global.  It is sponsored by the Friends of the Orcas Island Library in cooperation with Orcas Island Public Library, with generous support from the Sir Francis Bacon Foundation, the Daniel and Margaret Carper Foundation, the Orcas Island Community Foundation, Orcas Center, and individual contributors at the door. Tickets may be obtained at Darvill’s Bookstore and the Orcas Library at no cost. Contributions at the doors to ensure the continuation of the series are greatly appreciated.