The impact of genomics on precision public health: beyond the pandemic.

Precision public health has been defined in many ways. It can be viewed as an emerging multidisciplinary field that uses genomics, big data, and machine learning/artificial intelligence to predict health risks and outcomes and to improve health at the population level. Just like precision medicine seeks to provide the right intervention to the right patient at the right time, the aim of precision public health is to provide the right intervention to the right population at the right time, with the goal of improving health for all. Genomic technologies have been at the leading edge of applications in clinical medicine and have the potential to revolutionize public health. We are pleased to introduce this special issue of Genome Medicine on the impact of genomics on precision public health, which highlights the utility of genomic tools in public health research and practice in the fight against communicable and noncommunicable diseases. This is particularly timely, given the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has necessitated the application of genomic approaches to track the origin, transmission and evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus globally, as well as to understand differential host susceptibility, response, severity, and outcomes. Beyond genomics, granular data from population surveillance approaches are being used to target public health interventions. In addition, big data, digital technologies, and mobile health applications have been instrumental in defining the natural history of COVID-19 and identifying prognostic factors through machine learning and artificial intelligence.