Here are our latest COVID and flu insights before your weekend. Top takeaways: While flu continues to rise in young children, COVID positivity is highest in older individuals. Both flu and COVID are now showing test positivity of ~10% for individuals under 18 years old. This is up from <1% in August for flu and  … Read more

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

Germline genetic testing and somatic genetic testing are two types of testing that are used to examine an individual's genetic makeup. Both types have been available since the early 1990s when techniques for identifying genetic changes were first developed, but the ability to perform them has improved significantly over the years as newer technologies and  … Read more

What is Cardiomyopathy? Cardiomyopathy is a progressive heart muscle disease that can be acquired or inherited. This condition makes it increasingly difficult for the heart to pump blood throughout the body due to the weakening heart muscle. As cardiomyopathy progresses, patients might experience symptoms of fatigue, irregular heartbeats (arrhythmia), syncope, etc.  Genetic Considerations for Cardiomyopathy  … 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