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President Obama has promised to support a bold future for medicine where diagnostic testing and treatments aren’t just what’s best for most people – they’re what’s best for you. This “precision medicine” takes individual variations in our genes and environments into account. Getting there will require genetic and health data from as many people as possible to uncover relationships

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Euny Hong: I did a 23andMe genetic test because I suspected I might be partially descended from Middle-Eastern medieval merchants, who were Korea’s first Occidental trading partners. (My feeble basis for this theory included my hair texture and a possible epigenetic explanation for my Jewish conversion.) But the data took me in some strange directions. As did the horrifying lack of data

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When I started out as a doctor in 1999, the IOM published a blockbuster report that declared that up to 98,000 people were dying in US hospitals each year as a result of preventable medical errors. Just a few months ago, a study in the BMJ declared that number has now risen to more than 250,000, making preventable medical errors in hospitals the third-largest cause of death in the country in 2013

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Researcher who spent months chasing permission to republish online data sets urges others to read up on the law

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Before a drug can be marketed, it has to go through rigorous testing to show it is safe and effective. Surgery, though, is different. The Food and Drug Administration does not regulate surgical procedures. So what happens when an operation is subjected to and fails the ultimate test — a clinical trial in which patients are randomly assigned to have it or not?

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Since its public launch 10 years ago, Twitter has been used as a social networking platform among friends, an instant messaging service for smartphone users and a promotional tool for corporations and politicians. But it’s also been an invaluable source of data for researchers and scientists – like myself – who want to study how humans feel and function within complex social systems

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A data-sharing agreement obtained by New Scientist shows that Google DeepMind’s collaboration with the NHS goes far beyond what it has publicly announced

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“The first thing I’m discussing now is Zika,” said Dr. Jamie Nodler. As summer approaches, anxiety about Zika is growing in states like Florida and Texas. The virus hasn’t spread to mosquitoes along the Gulf Coast, and it may not, but experts are preparing nonetheless

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