SPOKANE, Wash. The Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine is announcing today that its inaugural class will be participating in a cutting-edge Scientific Wellness program provided by Arivale.

The program reflects a partnership with Arivale, which analyzes critical health indicators including DNA, blood and saliva, and lifestyle to create a enhanced picture of a persons wellness condition and potential. Then, it provides tailored coaching to create recommendations to optimize wellness.

The entire first-year class of 60 medical students, as well as select faculty and administrators, will have the unprecedented opportunity to enroll in the program. Arivale will take an integrated, in-depth look at each participants wellness, including unique genetic makeup (whole genome sequencing), clinical lab data and detailed environmental and lifestyle factors. Based on the comprehensive set of data, Arivale will create a unique dashboard, structured into six health dimensions: diabetes risk, heart health, healthy aging, inflammation, optimal nutrition and stress management. Each participant will be assigned an Arivale coach, supported by a clinical team who will translate the complex scientific information into a detailed plan to optimize wellness.

Our overarching goal is to be at the forefront of the transformation that is taking place in health care and as a newly established medical school, we are uniquely positioned to explore new frontiers in biology and medicine, said John Tomkowiak, M.D., founding dean of the Elson S. Floyd School of Medicine. We have a deep commitment to improving health and wellness through personalized medicine and we are creating a medical school that will prepare our students for the rapidly changing health care landscape.

The Arivale program will provide real-world context and first-hand experience in training the first generation of transformational leaders in Scientific Wellness and we are looking forward to partnering with the students, faculty and administration at the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, said Jennifer Lovejoy, Ph.D., Arivales chief translational science officer. In just a few years, these students will be physicians at the leading-edge in leveraging personalized data sets to help consumers optimize their overall health and wellness.

Physicians of the future will focus on keeping people well and preventing the transition into disease states, instead of focusing almost entirely on diagnosing and treating disease, as medicine is practiced today, said Lee Hood, M.D., Ph.D., Arivale co-founder and chair of the Arivale Scientific Advisory Board. Hood is also co-founder and president of the Institute for Systems Biology and senior vice president and chief science officer of Providence St. Joseph Health. Arivale is proud to collaborate with WSU on the first-of-its-kind program, designed to leverage systems medicine, big data and behavioral science to transform medical education and the entire health care landscape.

The Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine will train physicians in personalized medicine, with a special emphasis on preparing them to deliver health care to both urban and rural underserved communities in Washington state.

The college is focused on establishing a culture of innovation with interdisciplinary, state-of-the-art medical education curriculum and programs, as well as groundbreaking research opportunities. A cornerstone of its efforts will be engaging students in understanding and analyzing dense, dynamic, personal data clouds to optimize wellness and demystify disease in ways that will enable a new paradigm in health care delivery. These data clouds provide longitudinal assessment of genetics and environment/lifestyle and their interactions in individuals and are the cornerstone of Scientific Wellness.

News media contacts:

Terren Roloff, WSU Health Sciences Spokane, 509-358-7527, terren.roloff@wsu.edu

Gretchen Sorensen, 206-794-1057, gretchen@sorensenideas.com

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Scientific Wellness enhances personalized medicine training - WSU News