Fall is in full swing, and 2019 is fast approaching! Here’s a look at some of the top bioinformatics-adjacent stories that you may have missed during the dog days.
Though not technically summer, on May 25th, the EU passed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) into law, creating a global ripple effect. The law impacts the world of clinical decision support software because it stipulates the “right to explanation,” around automated decision-making (i.e., algorithms) and the expected consequences of applying those decisions. This requirement for transparency does not bode well for the walled-off “black box” approach to clinical decision support. For another perspective, read this contributed piece in The Pathologist, written by our own Ramon Felciano, in which he positions QCI as an enabling tool to transition to precision medicine in a cost-effective, scalable, and transparent way.
Artificial intelligence (AI) was frequently in the news over the past few months. In particular, we saw quite a few stories about IBM’s Watson and its limitations in beating cancer. Though Watson has not yet lived up to its promise of generating insights and identifying new approaches to cancer treatment, there remains hope in the industry that AI will eventually revolutionize medicine—whether through data pattern recognition, its impact on pharmaceutical development, or—even someday—cancer. In the meantime, we at QIAGEN continue to focus on our clinical decision support tools (big data, informatics and augmented intelligence) to improve test interpretation and accuracy of results.
QIAGEN was in the news as well.
Our second consecutive win during AMP Europe’s Battle of the Bioinformatics Pipeline event was covered in GenomeWeb; we published our own recap of the results to provide additional detail and background around standardizing variant interpretation and reporting. Finally, we recently hosted three international OmicSoft User Group Meetings:
- Nice, France: Sept 12-13
- Cambridge, MA: Oct 10-11
- Redwood City, CA: Oct 23-24
We hope you had a wonderful summer, and we look forward to the busier pace and renewed activity that fall brings.