What many think is the future of preventative medicine in the 21 Century is already being developed at research centers such as the Duke Institute for Genomic Sciences and Policy, and local audiences will have the opportunity to glimpse what is already available, as well as what the future holds, at this year’s Healthy Living Fair. The fair, which focuses on prevention, healthy lifestyle, and looking your best, will take place Saturday at Highlands-Cashiers Hospital.

Alex Cho, MD, MBA, of the Center of Genomic Medicine at Duke will speak on the benefits and limitations of genomics, based on current research in the field. His lecture takes place at 11 .m. on the first floor of the Jane Woodruff Clinic on the hospital campus.

The field of genomics has become one of the hottest medical topics these days, both within the profession and in the news media, as companies and some health providers have begun marketing genetic testing to predict an individual’s risk for certain diseases.

A graduate of Harvard and the University of Minnesota Medical School, Dr. Cho is the IGSP Scholar at the center and an instructor with the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, NC. He completed his internal medicine residency at New York University School of Medicine and a fellowship in internal medicine and health services research at Duke. In addition to authoring numerous peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed articles, he is a reviewer for the Journal of Genomic Medicine, Genomic Medicine, and the Yonsei Medical Journal, among other professional publications