Hospitals are built on data. Most often, medical data for research pile up in silos instead of being appropriately shared to develop more innovative ways to treat patients.
At Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health, we have started to think differently about the possibilities that surround the data and expertise our clinicians bring to solving our patients’ care needs. It’s why we joined forces to create the nation’s largest precision medicine partnership.
Because of that spirit of innovation, investment and the information-sharing agreements we established under the Precision Medicine Alliance, LLC, about 12 million patients in 16 states will have access to more promising treatments based on a genetic understanding of their disease.
The alliance currently is focused on advanced diagnostic tumor profiling. However, we are preparing ourselves to provide more specific diagnostic and personalized therapies for a number of genetic and acquired conditions, including cardiovascular medicine, neonatology and pharmacogenetics.
Before the alliance was formed, access to precision medicine-based care was inconsistent to all populations, making it available primarily to the well-insured and those with the personal wealth needed to pay for the specialized tests.
In a sense, the alliance represents the democratization of precision medicine. That’s because, for the first time, we have created a cost-efficient program that allows community-based hospitals, both large and small, to become partners with the alliance and introduce these vital programs locally.
The alliance highly complements national oncological programs at CHI and Dignity Health, which together serve more than 100,000 patients annually. Starting this fall, each oncology patient at active sites will be matched to all biomarker-appropriate therapeutics and will be screened for eligibility to enroll in a clinical trial. This makes Englewood, Colo.-based CHI and Dignity Health, which is headquartered in San Francisco, the first health systems in the nation with their own precision medicine program with reach across a national footprint. Together, the two systems have 139 hospitals and hundreds of other care sites.
The alliance couldn’t have happened soon enough amid the rapid pace of advancement in cancer treatments. Identifying new genetic markers and their effects on cancer occurrence, prognosis, and treatment options occurs at a staggering pace. Even the best-informed physicians may struggle to keep up with new treatment regimens for the most common cancers, let alone rarer forms.
The alliance is working to accelerate change. It is switching how we view and treat oncology patients throughout our network as well as working on wellness and prevention among our higher risk populations.
By actively screening patients and learning more about how genetic makeup and some environmental factors may influence health and care, we are far better positioned to identify and intervene earlier.
We already have hundreds of thousands of patients under management in the system today—a mega-community of actionable medical information. That community is enabling CHI and Dignity Health caregivers to share—in real time—their insights and outcomes on patients with cancer.
At CHI and Dignity Health, we see our early work as a catalyst for furthering this emerging science, using next generation strategies, technologies and a strong partnership. Our precision medicine alliance is not centered on discovering the next major genetic marker. We view our purpose as creating a model that disseminates the benefits of precision medicine to more patients and more caregivers. Access is equity and it is dictated by our mission.
Through the alliance, CHI and Dignity Health caregivers can more effectively identify the best drug therapies and possible clinical trials for their patients. Besides changing the way we treat some of our patients, we are also creating a repository of data to drive better clinical decision-making and treatment discoveries for generations to come.
We believe our early commitment to precision medicine through the alliance has helped set the stage for even greater and wider use of this promising methodology. With that, every patient can have access to the best treatment possible, when and where they need it.
Damon Hostin is the CEO of the Precision Medicine Alliance of Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health. Robert Weil, M.D., is senior vice president and chief medical officer of Catholic Health Initiatives and a board member of the Precision Medicine Alliance.
