First-of-its-kind conference on personalized medicine for pediatric patients

WHAT: The world's leading experts in pediatric pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine are gathering at a first-of-its-kind conference in Kansas City to change the way childhood diseases and illnesses are treated through personalized medicine. Details can be found at http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=787610

WHEN: April 28-30, 2010

WHERE: Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, 2401 Gillham Road, Kansas City, Mo.

WHO: Conference organizers available for interviews:

• Stephen Spielberg, MD, PhD, Director of the Children's Mercy Center for Personalized Medicine and Therapeutic Innovation
• J. Steven Leeder, PharmD, PhD, Division Chief, Clinical Pharmacology and Medical Toxicology, Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics

Other experts available upon request.

WHY: Personalized medicine continues to be an important area of focus for pediatric patients, as hospitals and clinics across the country seek ways to tailor therapy for patients to improve outcomes and reduce costs. The implications of this shift are profound, and experts from academia, government and the private sector in the US, Canada and Japan are convening to exchange knowledge on clinical applications, bioethics and development of pediatric personalized medicine programs.

Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics is a national leader in pediatric personalized medicine and is launching two new programs - the outpatient Personalized Medicine and Therapeutic Innovation Clinic and an inpatient adverse drug reaction program to improve medication safety. The clinics will receive referrals for patients who present diagnostic and therapeutic challenges - those patients who are not responding to current therapy, as well as those who have had an unexpected, adverse reaction to a medication. Using a variety of approaches, including genomic technologies and collaboration between clinical pharmacologists and pediatric subspecialists, the personalized medicine clinic at Children's Mercy will provide more targeted choice of therapies for treatment of the pediatric population.