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Today (Wednesday) the New York Times published my op-ed on electronic health records, specifically on the open-source records system called WorldVista. My take: it could be the breakthrough backend platform that the US health care system needs to FINALLY go digital. Here's the link, and here's the gist of the story:

This story on the wires today: For the first time in four decades, the CDC has quarantined a man infected with extreme-drug-resistant tuberculosis. The item provokes three thoughts: 1) It's a growing truism that the ease of international travel is a boon to infectious disease (see SARS). But that doesn't make the ease of aviation-propelled infection any less alarming. And the real appeal isn't just that airplanes make it easy for a pathogen to skip across the globe - it's also the luxurious incubation time that close-contact airplane travel provides (what virus wouldn't love 200+ humans sitting inches from each other and swapping breath for 9 hours?), so that when the original carrier lands, his fellow passengers will help him finish the job.

"It's not going to be easy." So says Dr. Lee Hartwell, the director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and chairman of the scientific advisory board at the Canary Foundation, re: the goal of ending cancer. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have a strategy for getting there. I'm at Stanford, sitting in on the annual Canary Found. Symposium, a gathering of about 100 stellar  researchers and scientists who are all focused on the early detection of disease (thus the name "canary"). The guiding principle is simple: If we can detect disease early (specifically cancer, from the Canary's POV), we can save thousands of lives. Canary founder Don Listwin is a maverick Silicon Valley veteran who offers the goal in one graphic that looks something like this:

There's lots of attention brewing up around the X Prize for Genomics, with the target of getting the price for a human gene sequence to $1000. At that price point, a whole lot of things become possible that aren't now. Like, say, getting your DNA sequenced with your annual checkup, etc. The X Prize model is terrific - Wired gave Peter Diamandis a Rave award in 2006 for taking it from space to sequencing. But it's sometimes seems too futuristic; of course sequences will cost $1000 some day, but that reality is very different from today's. And until then, what?

I have an idea (based on genetics) that is a slam-dunk plot line for a Hollywood movie. Far as I know, it is a totally original, and totally plausible idea, worthy of a thriller or a quasi-futuristic action movie (the sort that make $200 million or more). It will make for both a good plot and a dramatic and unanticipated twist ending. I am willing to discuss it with serious prospects. (Thanks to Chuck for the template here.)

So there's a great deal of enthusiasm here and elsewhere - such as this swell DNA Network I'm a part of - for the power of genetic based medicine. The overarching idea is temptingly simple: Once we can spot the genes that cause disease (whether individually or in combination) we'll be able to intervene earlier and treat better. On paper, it's a pretty plain proposition. All we have to do is map out the range of genetic traits and preconditions, and we'll be able to maximinze the good genes and minimize the bad ones (this is, of course, a gross simplification). But:

A great moment in tonight's Sopranos episode: when AJ, before worse things happen, rants at a family dinner about how meat is unsafe because the FDA is letting companies spray viruses onto the meat to eliminate bacteria. I don't know about you, but I let out a huge: "Huh?" Turns out AJ was right: last August, the FDA approved a cocktail of bacteriophages that attack the bacteria that causes listeria, a classic food-borne bacterial disease that can sometimes be fatal (500 people a year in the US die from listeria). The spray is developed by the biotech company Intralytix, and according to their website its a totally safe additive that can only add to a reduction in food-borne illnesses.

In more database news, a neat new project out of the University of Maryland was announced in Plos Computational Biology today. Called Insignia, it is, in their own words:

Cool new resource/clearing house for genetic databases and projects: the Genetic Alliance. It's a database drawing together some 600 organizations regarding over 1000 genetic conditions. Many of these, no doubt, are conditions few people have ever heard of: Trichorhinophalangeal syndrome? Refsum disease? The goal is to draw on the collective power and knowledge of the organizations that spring up for these relatively obscure disorders, so that they may more effectively lobby, educate, and spur research. Interestingly, it's funded in part by the CDC.

The International Classification of Diseases is one of those things that everybody needs, but nobody knows exists. In a nutshell, it is the official list of diseases, as determined by a collective body of experts, under the authority of the World Health Organization. It dates back to the 1850s, when it was known as the International List of Causes of Death, while today it is a highly codified (and oftentimes politicized) list of all sorts of ailments, from broken bones to a dozen or more forms of colitis (here's a PDF link to the latest updates, from 2005). Now on the 10th edition - ICD-10 - each new edition is bigger and better and (again) bigger than the last.