President Barack Obama is asking Congress for $215 million to pay for what he's calling a Precision Medicine Initiative a plan to rev up more targeted treatments for people.

The hope is to build on gains like those made recently in treating cancer. Scientists know that cancer isn't just a single disease and it's become clear that even specific types of cancer, such as breast cancer, are truly separate diseases with separate causes.

The initiative would aim to take these discoveries across medicine.

"It's a game changer. It holds the potential to revolutionize the way we approach health in this country and, ultimately, around the world," said Dr. Jo Handelsman, associate director for science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

"It holds the potential to revolutionize the way we approach health in this country."

"Throughout history, most medical treatments have been designed for the average patient, meaning they can be highly effective for most patients but not others," she added.

"As a result of this one-size-fits-all-approach, treatments can be very successful for some patients but not for others," the White House said in a statement.

"This is changing with the emergence of precision medicine, an innovative approach to disease prevention and treatment that takes into account individual differences in people's genes, environments, and lifestyles."

Even as toddlers it was clear something was wrong with Alexis and Noah Beery of Carlsbad, California. But doctors could not figure out what. Their mother, Retta Beery, said precision medicine could have changed that.

Obama's ask includes $130 million for the National Institutes of Health to develop a database of a million people whose genes, lifestyle and health would be studied and followed for years. Unlike previous such studies, the volunteers could share in learning from and using their data.

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Obama Seeks Millions for 'Precision Medicine'