“Combining forces to achieve Personalized Medicine”

Technological advances have changed our world from distant groups separated by oceans and mountain ranges, into closely knit, inextricably linked units, all dependent on one another for survival. For Paula Kim, Founder and President of Translating Research Across Communities (TRAC) and Principal of Paula Kim Consulting, the multifaceted and complex world of personalized medicine is no different.

Kim has always focused on bringing people together and coordinating efforts toward a common goal. In 1987, she served as Principal and Founder of Kampas Builders, a Minority Women Business Enterprise construction company in California. She founded Delta One Construction Consulting in 1990, another minority and women-owned business providing oversight and construction management services to corporations, individuals, lenders, and architects.

In 1999, Paula Kim refocused her commitment to bringing people and resources together in the world of personalized medicine and patient advocacy.  She co-founded the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, Inc. (PanCAN), the disease’s first and only national patient advocacy organization, and instituted the first national programs for pancreatic cancer in patient services, national grassroots volunteer awareness, and privately funded career development-grants.  Kim led public policy efforts that yielded an unprecedented increase of over 200% in federal government investments for pancreatic cancer research, growing from $17.5 million per year to over $54 million per year in 2005.

It was during her research and planning for PanCAN that Kim first noticed the tremendous need for improvement in patient services, early detection, treatments, awareness, and research funding for this disease.  “Getting the most bang for our buck when it comes to treatment outcomes is a top priority," says Kim.  In other industries, like construction, it is common sense to find the tool or method that exactly fits the builder’s current need. “I think personalized medicine is so much more important because we’re talking about human health and human lives here; we’re not talking about buying the right drywall or two by four lumber," says Kim. These needs fueled Kim’s desire for a coordinated and united research network.

Kim sees the interconnectedness of scientific research as a cornerstone of the move to personalized medicine. Using her knowledge of the inner workings of organizations and her talent for developing relationships between groups, she established a new initiative, Translating Research Across Communities (TRAC), to facilitate research and foster more links between patients and the scientific community. This program helps organizations accelerate the biomedical research process through a better understanding of patient needs, and helps develop infrastructure, relationships, communication, and knowledge management.  It is only through such a “synchronized” effort that she believes personalized medicine can truly advance and ultimately help patients.

Kim acknowledges that the United States still has some work to do to attain personalized and more effective medicine.  She cites a lack of a comprehensive map of “who is doing what and where,” and a “lack of dedicated resources, infrastructure, and systematic processes for collaboration moving research within each community and between communities.”  For Kim, this lack of a logical and cohesive system is the factor holding the United States back in personalized medicine research. “I think that our systems are extremely ill-prepared to handle personalized medicine,” states Kim. “If we had a bunch of “home runs” right now, our system of information and knowledge sharing would fail us. We’re not even close to being ready to handle that.” 

Kim’s work delineates the important role each patient, researcher, company, agency, and advocate must play if personalized medicine is to advance.  “We’re on the verge of great discovery and great ability to do a lot for patients,” affirms Kim, “but...such advances won’t have any impact if there is no system to provide information, to connect people, and to make it all happen.”

This article is based on a personal interview with Ms. Kim and on citations from the following:

Kim, Paula. The Power of Research Advocates for Cancer.
Kim, Paula. (2004, November 1). Best Mechanisms for Moving Research into Communities.
Testimony for President’s Cancer Panel, Houston, TX.