Gains Being Made Integrating IT, Genomic Data

The Mount Sinai Biobank Program (New York) announced in May that it reached the milestone of enrolling 25,000 participants in its BioME program, representing one of the most diverse patient populations in the world of individuals who have consented to DNA sequencing, ongoing contact from researchers, and longitudinal studies related to data embedded in the electronic medical record (EMR). The program is a large repository of DNA and plasma samples enabling molecular research. On the clinical side, clinicians and information technology experts at Mount Sinai developed and are gradually implementing a program called CLIPMERGE (Clinical Implementation of Personalized Medicine through Electronic Health Records and Genomics), which unites emerging genetic understanding with EMR-based clinical information, giving doctors real-time therapeutic guidance based on a patient’s genetic profile. Currently this guidance is clinically available for three conditions related to cardiovascular disease, blood clots, and high cholesterol. But Mount Sinai says that as greater genotype-phenotypic relationships are unveiled, BioMe and CLIPMERGE will be updated accordingly. “With its interoperable BioMe and CLIPMERGE platforms as flagship institutional infrastructures, Mount Sinai has the unique capability to close the loop between genomic discovery and the implementation of genomic medicine in clinical care,” says the organization in a statement. For more information on how the integration of information technology and genomics data will affect the adoption of personalized medicine, please see Inside the Diagnostics Industry on page 5.