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Geisinger has launched a DNA sequencing project with the potential to identify virtually everyone in our patient population who is at increased risk for early onset, inherited cancer and cardiac events. Already we have identified more than 500 patients who are at increased risk for disease and have uncovered previously undetected cases of cancer and heart disease, allowing our doctors to treat these illnesses much earlier than they could have otherwise.
In our precision health programs, sequencing the known functional parts of the genome for our patients is becoming a clinical reality, not just as a diagnostic test for patients who present with particular symptoms, but for all patients in our community. Understanding the genome’s warning signals is now an essential part of their health forecasting, wellness planning and health management.
These successful developments are a result of the clinical application of our decade-old biobank and genome sequencing effort called the MyCode Community Health Initiative. In that project, we have determined the DNA sequence of the so-called exome — the known functional parts of the estimated 20,000 genes in our genome — of over 90,000 Geisinger patients, in partnership with the sequencing research laboratory at Regeneron.
Our patients have long supported the MyCode research project, volunteering at high rates to have their genomes sequenced with the understanding that the project has the potential to improve their care and benefit the entire Geisinger population. When we asked them, if we came across clinically meaningful results during study, whether they wanted the results to be reported to them and their doctors, they overwhelmingly said yes.
The way we look at it, that’s millions of Geisinger family members who no longer have to rely on the law of averages to forecast their health and make plans about their lives and how they live them. For these patients, precision health care reduces uncertainty and allows them to take charge.
