All it takes is a few scrolls through LinkedIn and Twitter, and it’s clear that health disparities and the need for greater health equity are being talked about by more and more organizations across the healthcare industry. There is consensus that health equity is important and that health systems will need to actively and sustainably  … Read more

While it continues to feel like “the pandemic is over,” we’re uncovering additional COVID and other respiratory disease insights as the fall season is in full swing. Our latest takeaways:  Flu continues to rapidly increase, and history suggests COVID will follow. While COVID cases and positivity continue to trend downward in the US right now,  … Read more

As COVID becomes more a part of our everyday lives, we’ll post these viral surveillance insights only when there is enough relevant news to share. Below are our latest takeaways:  Despite cases still going down, there likely will be a winter COVID wave: It is still too early to say to what extent a new  … Read more

Genomic testing has been used for years on a case-by-case basis in clinical care, but is now increasingly seen as an important contributor to advancing population health. In September, Feby Abraham, PhD, Chief Strategy Officer of Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System, and James Lu, MD, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Helix, came together to discuss  … Read more

Many health system leaders feel that clinician access to a patient’s heritable risks for actionable health conditions is an important step towards being able to eventually provide comprehensive precision medicine.  And yet most organizations that utilize genomics today are still only doing so with a fraction of their population and through very specific service lines  … Read more

We believe we’ve entered a new equilibrium with the pandemic, as most people have had the virus or are vaccinated by now. And that any rises in cases going forward should be driven by seasonality, waning immunity, and/or new variants. Top viral surveillance insights below: Subvariants of concern plateauing in frequency: The Omicron subvariants that  … Read more

A few notable COVID insights on the latest (sub)variants and reinfections from our viral surveillance efforts. Our top 3 takeaways: Cases are coming down across the country: While positive cases had been fluctuating the last few weeks, they are now officially down across the country, with both BA.4 and BA.5 likely having peaked. As of  … Read more

The Quadruple Aim—enhancing patient experience, increasing provider satisfaction, improving population health, and reducing costs of care—serves as a guide for optimal health system performance1. Implementing a genomics program that includes access to pharmacogenomics is critical for health systems to be able to accomplish it.   The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) currently lists over 300  … Read more

In the past, it’s been difficult to determine with consistency whether or not a new or rare mutation in a gene actually causes a disease and has clinical impact, even if it is well known that the gene and the disease have a clear relationship. Some prior methods have tried to find clinically impactful regions  … Read more

With Omicron BA.5 continuing to surge, here are the top 3 viral surveillance insights for this week:   Reinfections are happening more often but NOT more quickly: While many have been concerned that the average time in between infections has decreased, our data is actually showing that it has increased from 230 days in April, to  … Read more