The Beyond 1 Million Genomes (B1MG) project aims to make it easier to share human health data around Europe. It will support the European Union's 1+ Million Genomes Initiative (1+MG), which aims to provide access to at least one million sequenced genomes in the EU by 2022.
The B1MG project will support this initiative by creating the infrastructure, the legal guidance and the best practices to enable this access. It will make it possible for scientists and clinicians to study the genotypic and phenotypic data from over one million people. This data will be linked, so the genetic data from one individual can be matched with their phenotypic data (like their weight, blood group and medical history).
But the project will look 'beyond' the 1+MG Initiative and drive the development of a data sharing infrastructure that goes beyond the lifetime of 1+MG, and beyond 1 million genomes.
The overall goal is to help develop national data sharing networks and connect them into an international network, where the data remains stored locally but is accessible across Europe. Scientists and clinicians can then access the huge amounts of linked
genotypic and phenotypic data across the 25 European countries in the project. This will:
- Enable scientists to better understand diseases. This is particularly important for rare diseases, where a scientist working with only nationally-available data may not have enough data to study a particular rare disease.
- Enable clinicians to give personalised medicine. Personalised medicine is an approach to diagnosing and treating patients based on the patient's particular genetic and phenotypic data. It leads to more accurate diagnoses and
more targeted medicine. It will also allow clinicians to prescribe more targeted preventative medicine. It is predicted this will lead to a longer life expectancy and a better quality of life for European citizens.
- Stimulate innovation and boost the European economy. Access to health data from a million citizens will spur innovation in the healthcare industries, and personalised preventative medicine will ease the strain on national
health services.
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