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Precision Medicine Alliance Could Affect 12 Million Patients

News  |  By HealthLeaders Media News  
   September 27, 2016

The alliance, resulting from a partnership between Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives, is billed as the largest community-based precision medicine program in the country.

Precision medicine is coming to millions of patients at two of the nation's largest health systems, thanks to the newly launched Precision Medicine Alliance, LLC. The program—a result of a partnership between Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives—aims to offer patients from both systems faster and more accurate diagnostic and treatment protocols based on their genetic and molecular profile information.

Dignity Health is headquartered in San Francisco and is a 21-state network of nearly 9,000 physicians, 59,000 employees, and more than 400 care centers. The Englewood, Colorado-based-based Catholic Health Initiatives is the nation's second-largest nonprofit health system with 103 hospitals and other facilities operating in 18 states.

The Precision Medicine Alliance will be available at nearly 150 hospitals and care centers serving approximately 12 million patients annually. It is billed as the largest community-based precision medicine program in the country.


VUMC gets its largest grant to lead precision medicine initiative


The PMA will initially focus on advanced diagnostic tumor profiling in cancer treatment and will later expand into other areas such as cancer and cardiovascular risk, and pharmacogenomics. The program will also support oncology research by populating a database that the health systems say will become the largest collection of clinical cancer data ever compiled by a single organization.

The two health systems will partner with laboratories and bioinformatics companies nationwide to develop molecular tests to meet the specific needs of patients and clinicians.

By combining the data from diagnostic tests with an individual's medical history, the program aims to help healthcare providers develop individualized treatment and prevention plans.

The program will also integrate EMRs into a data-management infrastructure that promises quick access to the right clinical expertise and clinical trial information.

'More Accurate Diagnoses'
"The Precision Medicine Alliance will provide community physicians with access to a wide range of diagnostic technology that is currently only available in academic medical centers. This will provide more accurate diagnoses, with personalized therapies tailored to each patient through community providers, where the vast majority of care happens," Lloyd Dean, president and CEO of Dignity Health said in a statement announcing the program.

"Through our partnership with CHI, we are using the latest technology, especially in genomic sequencing, to deliver the right care, to the right patients, quickly and efficiently."

The Precision Medicine Alliance is aligned with the White House's $215 million national Precision Medicine Initiative to accelerate biomedical research. In July, Vanderbilt University Medical Center was awarded a $71.6 million federal grant to establish a precision medicine data research center.


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