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Member Research & Reports

Member Research & Reports

Texas A&M Researcher on Using Population Data to Map the “Social” Genome

In today’s society, digital information provides the framework for every aspect of our daily lives from school records, housing records, and economic history. With the advent of computerized data as a way to facilitate the storing and accessing of information, we have not only created a footprint for what we do, but a virtual genetic code for who we are as individuals. In a recent article in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society’s flagship publication, Computer, Dr. Hye-Chung Kum, an associate professor with the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health argues that this data, or our social genome, could be used in new ways to help better understand the concerns of a population and how to best meet their health and societal needs.