Imagine instead being able to use a simple blood test to determine which medication would work best for you.

According to the researchers that broke the genetic code, we are very close to implementing “personalized medicine,” and tailoring treatments to individuals based on their genetic makeup.

The goal is to deliver the right drug at the right time in the right dose to the right person and eliminate often costly treatments that don't work.

While this may sound futuristic, some of these personalized treatments are already being applied.

For example, if a genetic test shows that a woman's breast cancer tumor overproduces a substance called HER-2, she is considered to be a good candidate for the drug Herceptin, which cuts her chance of a recurrence almost in half. But if the test is negative, another treatment must be sought because administering Herceptin will be a waste of money.

I could see genetic testing like this finding its way into value-based benefits design.

Speaking at a recent conference in Washington, Francis Collins, the scientist who ran the federal government's Human Genome Project from 1993 to 2008, said that advances in genomic medicine are accelerating thanks to new high-speed machines that can analyze hundreds of thousands of units of DNA in minutes.