About us

The Center for Comparative Effectiveness in Genomic Medicine (CEGeM) is housed within the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania and closely linked to the participating departments and centers at Penn. CEGeM brings together investigators from over a dozen disciplines (including bioethics, biostatistics, breast imaging, cancer genetics, dermatology, epidemiology, health behavior, health economics, health information technology, health policy, medical genetics, medical oncology, molecular pathology, and psychology).

The Center builds upon the core support provided through the Abramson Cancer Center, enhancing or developing specific functions to facilitate comparative effectiveness research in genomics, such as EMR programming, patient consent and accrual, DNA and tissue banking and testing, and data management and linkage.

The overarching mission of CEGeM as a coordinated, multidisciplinary center is the generation and synthesis of evidence to support the translation of genomic tools/markers into improvements in cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment and survivorship.

This mission is achieved by:

• Testing new approaches to genomic and personalized medicine in cancer prevention, screening, treatment and survivorship.
• Using decision and cost effectiveness modeling to understand the clinical and economic outcomes of these genomic and personalized approaches.
  
• Situating the clinical and economic results within the broader social context influencing the use of genomic technology in cancer prevention, screening, treatment and survivorship.

CEGeM's mission focuses not just on understanding the absolute effect of genomic personalized approaches on clinical and economic outcomes but on how that effect compares to current approaches- i.e. the comparative effectiveness.

History:  Although considerable research related to comparative effectiveness of genomic medicine was ongoing at the University of Pennsylvania, this activity had not been formally linked into a Center prior to the reception of the NCI Grand Opportunity grant in 2009.

Funding: The creation of CEGeM is funded by National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health through Award Number RC2CA148310.