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Benefits Breakdown August 2024

What Employers Should Know About Precision Medicine

Precision medicine, also known as personalized medicine, aims to customize medical care by considering the unique characteristics of each patient. The approach focuses on getting the right treatment to the patient at the right time and for the right price. At its core, precision medicine recognizes that individuals respond differently to diseases and treatments due to genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors. Key technologies driving this approach to medicine include genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics, all of which enable health care professionals to analyze the intricate molecular details of an individual’s biology. The foundational idea is to harness this wealth of genetic information to predict, prevent and treat diseases in a manner that is specifically tailored to the patient.

The precision medicine market is growing rapidly, and more employers are paying attention to this approach. According to the Personalized Medicine Coalition, precision medicines account for more than one-quarter of the new therapeutics approved since 2015. While precision medicine is often linked to serious or hard-to-treat illnesses that represent a small fraction of an employer’s workforce, these conditions significantly drive up overall health care spending. Therefore, employers could use precision medicine approaches to align their health plans’ incentives and realize significant cost savings. Precision medicine represents a departure from the traditional one-size-fits-all model, potentially revolutionizing patient outcomes. Reach out for more employee benefits information.

Building a Successful Learning and Development Program

In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing workplaces, savvy employers are offering continuous learning and development (L&D) opportunities to make their organizations attractive places to work. Employers who invest in robust L&D programs not only enhance their workforce’s skills and knowledge but may also boost employee engagement, retention and overall organizational performance. Implementing a successful L&D program requires careful planning and execution from organizations. Best practices for employers to consider include the following:

Foster a culture where learning is valued and supported at all levels of the organization.
Leverage technology (e.g., learning management systems) to help deliver and manage training programs, facilitate personalized learning experiences and provide valuable data for measuring program effectiveness.
Engage company leaders and managers in the L&D program to gain their support and participation, which can drive employee engagement and demonstrate the importance of continuous development.
Personalize programs to individual employees’ roles, career aspirations and learning styles.
Promote collaborative learning through group projects, peer mentoring and team-based training sessions.

A commitment to ongoing L&D remains critical to maintaining a competitive edge in the race for top talent. Reach out to us for additional workplace guidance.