Caris Life Sciences, Epic Integrating Genetic Tests

July 7, 2022

Caris said the EHR integration will help enable data-driven decision making for Epic users, who represent 60 percent of oncologists in the U.S.

David Raths

Progress continues to be made on integrating genetic test ordering and results into electronic health record systems. In June, Myriad Genetics, a genetic testing and precision medicine company, announced a partnership with Epic to integrate Myriad’s full line of genetic tests with Epic’s EHR system. Now Caris Life Sciences, a molecular science and technology company, has announced an enhanced partnership with Epic, to integrate Caris’ molecular testing portfolio with Epic’s Orders and Results Anywhere (ORA) network.

Through comprehensive molecular profiling (Whole Exome and Whole Transcriptome Sequencing) and the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, Caris said it has created the large-scale clinico-genomic database and cognitive computing needed to analyze and unravel the molecular complexity of disease.

The company said the ORA network integration, available later this year, will be an important next step to fully enabling data-driven decision making for Epic users, who represent 60 percent of oncologists in the U.S. By integrating test ordering and resulting directly into Epic ORA, Caris said it can streamline clinical workflows for physicians and offer access to structured genomic data all within their Epic environment.

Caris’ entire suite of molecular profile services, including whole exome and whole transcriptome sequencing for tissue and blood samples, will be available within the ORA network. Caris said it is the first partner with whole exome and whole transcriptome sequencing capabilities to join Epic’s ORA network. The company said it plans to continue collaborating with EHR systems on new ways to integrate genomic results into patient care and education.

“Caris Life Sciences is committed to fulfilling our organizational promise of making personalized precision medicine accessible to as many physicians and patients as possible,” said David Spetzler, M.S., Ph.D., MBA, president and chief scientific officer of Caris, in a statement. “Building on the success of our Epic Genomics Module integration, ORA will further enhance patient access to critical molecular results they need to fight, and hopefully beat cancer.”

“Integrations like ours with Caris Life Sciences directly benefit patients by improving access and efficiency to testing results that lead to informed treatment decisions,” said Alan Hutchison, vice president of population health at Epic, in a statement. “We are excited for this enhanced partnership with Caris to further increase health access and care, and the opportunity to help deliver precision medicine to a greater number of communities.”