By Mary Stempniak
It cuts across everything a hospital is pursuing today. Personalized medicine, with care tailored to the unique genetic blueprint of each patient — perhaps once thought of as science fiction — is becoming a strategic imperative across the entire health care field.
At NorthShore University HealthSystem, in the north Chicago suburb of Evanston, Ill., integrating genetics into everyday care has become its driving force, says President and CEO Mark Neaman. Personalized medicine touches on so many of the hot-button issues that keep hospital executives tossing and turning at night — meeting the demands of consumerism, treating the health of patient populations and preventing hospital readmissions, to name a few. 
Emboldened by President Obama’s plans to devote $215 million toward the Precision Medicine Initiative, NorthShore is betting big on genomics. The four-hospital integrated system launched its Center for Personalized Medicine in April, bringing together a number of related endeavors.