HR0138 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0138 LRB102 17334 MST 22824 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Precision medicine, which is also called personalized health care or individualized medicine, is an evolving field in which healthcare providers use analysis of a patient's biospecimen, known as biomarker testing, to determine which medical treatments will work best for each patient; and

WHEREAS, By combining the data from biomarker testing with an individual's medical history, circumstances, and values, healthcare providers can direct a patient to targeted treatment, which benefits both patients and the overall healthcare system; and

WHEREAS, The field of precision medicine holds great promise in ensuring the delivery of the right treatment to the right patient at the right time; and

WHEREAS, Sixty percent of treatments in preclinical development rely on biomarker data; and

WHEREAS, Biomedicine and the understanding of the characteristics of a patient's disease that informs precision medicine is evolving rapidly; and

WHEREAS, Healthcare providers are increasingly gaining access to new technologies, such as biomarker testing, that can help identify gene mutations, alterations, or protein expressions specific to individual patients; and

WHEREAS, Health outcomes are improved through the use of precision medicine; for example, patients with certain types of lung cancer who received biomarker testing had a 28 percent reduction in mortality; and

WHEREAS, The National Academy of Medicine considers biomarker tests to be "key to unlocking the promise" of personalized health care; and

WHEREAS, Biomarker testing is available for an ever-increasing range of conditions and diseases, but patient access to these tests is not keeping pace with the rate of innovation; and

WHEREAS, A lack of awareness among providers and patients, a lack of common terminology, and deficient coverage policies by both public and private payers are preventing effective adoption and integration of biomarker testing into precision medicine and appropriate awareness and education about the ways biomarker testing can be used to support diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of patients in a personalized way; and

WHEREAS, The Illinois Department of Public Health and other relevant partners seek to promote awareness, education, and action related to improving access to biomarker testing; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we declare March 2021 as "Precision Medicine and Biomarker Testing Awareness Month" to raise awareness, encourage education, and improve understanding of the ways biomarker testing can be used to support diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of patients in a personalized way and the importance of ensuring access to these promising technologies.