A Next Step For Personalized Medicine? Vendor Brings Genomics To Ambulatory EHR

Most physicians have some sense of the value personalized medicine can bring to their practice, but I doubt that many have ready access to the tools they’d need to harness its power.

In an effort to close that gap – and of course, to make its platform irreplaceable – a vendor serving medical practices has struck a deal giving physicians the ability to order genetic tests and leverage them to improve care.

The vendor, DrChrono, offers a suite of electronic systems for physicians, including an EHR which can be customized by bundling in affiliated apps. Its new partner is Genomind, a personalized medicine platform offering genetic testing for psychiatry practices.

Physicians using DrChrono will have access to two Genomind test kits, along with some analytics tools they can use to make use of the testing data.

One of the tests is Mindful DNA Professional, a genetic test used by clinicians to help them guide wellness decisions. The test targets aspects of a patient’s genetic details which could have an impact on overall health, such as variants suggesting that they could have sleep issues or a predisposition to anxiety, depression or impaired cognition.

DrChrono users will also have access to the Genecept Assay, the results of which can guide the treatment of psychiatric conditions. Once test results become available on the Genomind system, doctors can use its gene-drug-environmental interaction tool, the Genomind Drug Interaction Guide, to inform their treatment decisions. With the help of the Guide, clinicians can analyze the patient’s current medication regimen and flag gene-drug interactions.

An interesting side note to all of this is that the final test results from Genomind will be stored in the DrChrono information library for the patient and become part of the patient’s medical record.

Looked at one way, sharing the Genomind test results seems almost like a no-brainer in a world where casual genetic testing (think 23andMe) is becoming the norm. On the other, though, I don’t want to gloss over the fact that using genetic data to search for relatives is one thing and putting it into your personal medical record is quite another. It suggests that of consumer-driven demand for precision treatment is maturing, and that Genomind is on the right side of this trend.

This takes me back to DrChrono, which while not itself reinventing the wheel has struck a smart deal here. Not only has it brought a tool on board which could offer some benefit to physicians, its supporting the collection of information (genetic data) that patients are beginning to want. If DrChrono can give patients their genetic info via a decent portal, the company may find itself to be in demand with patients. Way to stay abreast of the times.

About the author

Anne Zieger

Anne Zieger is a healthcare journalist who has written about the industry for 30 years. Her work has appeared in all of the leading healthcare industry publications, and she's served as editor in chief of several healthcare B2B sites.

   

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