"The Vanderbilt-Miami-Meharry Center of Excellence in Precision Medicine and Population Health - Evaluative Care", Victoria Mitrani, PhD, PI

The mission of the Vanderbilt-Miami-Meharry Center of Excellence in Precision Medicine and Population Health is to provide a diverse group of researchers with the infrastructure and resources to develop collaborative research teams that use precision medicine approaches to eliminate disparities in health outcomes, specifically among African Americans and Latinos.


The Miami-Vanderbilt-Meharry Center of Excellence in Precision Medicine and Population Health will leverage unique institutional assets and resources to develop novel methods and catalyze approaches to advance population health. The foundation of precision medicine is that prevention and treatment strategies take individual variability into account, which has the potential to eliminate disparities. Yet, to date, when developing new ways to treat disease, investigational therapies are often insufficiently tested in minorities, even though efficacy and safety can be highly variable in certain races and/or ethnicities. The Center, funded through an $11.6 million grant from the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities, will include core programs focused on building and sustaining a regional consortium and developing strategies to speed implementation, diffusion and adoption of precision medicine techniques. Dr. Williams serves as Co-Director of the Implementation Core of the center and will oversee activities aimed at fostering the adoption and dissemination of precision medicine initiatives for racial and ethnic minorities. Areas of emphasis for the Implementation Core include genomic health literacy, using principles of community engagement to enhance adoption of precision medicine, and biomedical ethics.