Public Health Implications of Bioinformatics

Abstract:

Epidemiologists are reformulating their classical approaches to diseases by considering various issues associated to “omics” areas and technologies. Traditional differences between epidemiology and genetics include background, training, terminologies, study designs and others. Public health and epidemiology are increasingly looking forward to using methodologies and informatics tools, facilitated by the Bioinformatics community, for managing genomic information. Future microarray developments will also facilitate the analysis of entire genomes on single arrays, enhancing genetic epidemiology research. The use of biomarkers, biobanks, and integrated genomic/clinical databases poses serious challenges for bioinformaticians in order to extract useful information and knowledge for biomedical research and healthcare. In this regard, there are various ethical, privacy, informed consent and social implications that should be carefully addressed by researchers, practitioners and policy makers.

 

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