Harvard scientists hope to build a computer system that can scan patients’ medical records to automatically find disease clues, like unintended side effects or genetic susceptibilities to asthma. It could answer questions that would normally need prolonged, costly clinical trials. The five-year, $20 million project called I2B2 (Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside) is showing early signs of success. It could be more effective if linked to a biobank with DNA samples, but such a step faces technical, logistical, and ethical hurdles.
Read the full story in the Boston Globe.