Through the Million Health Discoveries program, the Regeneron Genetics Center will sequence and analyze the DNA of Mount Sinai Health patients. Data will be linked to an anonymized version of the electronic medical record for multifaceted research in personalized medicine by Icahn School of Medicine.
why it matters
Mount Sinai Health and Regeneron are developing proprietary racially and ethnically diverse datasets to learn how genetics can help in the treatment and diagnosis of most patients, as well as in the discovery and development of new treatments. We are embarking on a collection of
One million patients will be recruited over five years from the Mount Sinai Health System, which serves approximately four million patients annually. The Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine at Icahn Mount Sinai administers the program.
Previously, the institute spearheaded a program called BioMe, an EMR-linked biobank and another collaboration between Mount Sinai and RGC, focuses on the broader relationship between health and the human genome.
This project enrolled Mount Sinai patients who consented to study with DNA sequencing associated with anonymized clinical information embedded in their EHR.
During a pandemic when patient interaction was highly restricted, when Mount Sinai gained access to the large collection of available blood samples, the institute called for patient participation in genetic studies. was solicited.
Dr. Alexander W. Charney, associate professor of psychiatry, genetics and genomics at Icahn Mount Sinai and co-director of the Institute, said: The project leader for the Million Health Discovery Program said in a prepared statement.
Dr. Girish N. Nadkarni of Irene and Arthur M. Fishberg Professor of Medicine and co-director of the institute said in a statement that the level required to produce meaningful precision medicine research data is critical. The team will re-evaluate each step of the patient enrollment process in order to increase the level of participation.
“Almost all the information needed for this study is already embedded in electronic medical records. I mean,” said Dr. Nadkarni.
Vibrent Health is the National Institutes of Health’s million-person precision nutrition consent platform technology vendor. The All of Us Research Program provides a platform for electronic consent, data collection, and involvement in clinical research to ensure patient privacy.
According to the announcement, the Mount Sinai Million Health Discovery project will focus on multimodal data science, deep phenotyping of patients with beneficial genetic variants, and last-mile experimental trials to test new therapies before they are incorporated into patients. Become part of other initiatives within the Institute, such as interventions. clinical care.
“Our ultimate hope is that we can use genetics to help all patients,” Dr. Charney said in a statement. Strongly supports our hopes that the project will achieve what it failed to do: enroll 1 million patients in a few years and provide researchers with the data they need to improve patient care. Through customized care and, in the long term, the possibility of creating entirely new diagnostic tests, treatments and preventive measures.”
the bigger trend
This emerging approach to disease treatment and prevention relies on large amounts of data to generate new insights and develop innovative treatment and care models that can focus on prevention and early screening of disease. to Investments in machine learning and interoperable EHRs are needed to make precision medicine more real across the healthcare ecosystem.
By collaborating with technology companies and utilizing the EHR system, we not only collect data necessary for research, Providing genetic insights to physicians at the point of care is a rapid and ongoing trend in healthcare.
Vast amounts of clinically focused data are needed to determine the effectiveness of precision medicine in improving patient care before it is broadly integrated into the U.S. healthcare system, Mount Sinai announces is.
on record
“We hope the unprecedented scale and diversity of this study will provide researchers with clinically actionable information to provide better care for our patients.” CSO of Mount Sinai Health System said in the announcement.
Dr. Aris Baras, senior vice president of Regeneron and head of RGC, said:
“Mount Sinai’s patient population is amazingly diverse, and a healthcare provider that truly believes in the potential of precision and genetics-based medicine and the application of genomics and digital health to improve health outcomes for all. I am well served by them.”
Andrea Fox is senior editor for Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.
