DNA Direct partners for Genomic Medicine

Last month I told you about an innovative partnership that brings community healthcare into the 21st century. The Genomic Medicine Institute was launched at Silicon Valley’s El Camino Hospital together with DNA Direct to enable physicians and their patients access to leading-edge genomic services.

Physician studying DNA radiograph. Image: Newscom

Genomic Medicine Institute was created so that patients can be better directed in their decisions about their medical conditions, especially when it comes to using genetic tests and counseling. For example, when someone finds out she has breast cancer, one of the questions that is asked is will she pass it to her daughter? Should she tell her sisters about it? Should she have mastectomy? Should her daughter have mastectomies? Difficult questions like these can best be answered when the physician and a genetic counselor work together to get patients a comprehensive answer.

And the people of Silicon Valley, California have that kind of access with the newly launched Genomic Medicine Institute.

I talked with DNA Direct CEO Ryan Phelan about some of the details that her company is doing as partner of the Genomic Medicine Institute:

• DNA Direct is a “guidance and decision support” for genomic medicine.
• The company provides education and support for the physician in making informed decisions about his patient’s medical needs, including genetic issues.
• The company also provides information and counseling for the patient through their expert genetic counselors.
• DNA Direct is not a genetic testing company and does not make money off testing services.

Ryan Phelan talked about these points in detail in my interview, which you can read after the cut.

Ryan: The role that DNA Direct plays is a really unique and I think, an influential one, which is to help physicians adopt these new technologies. First of all, what we refer to as our core competency is what I would call guidance and decision support for genomic medicine. What we’re trying to do is provide that underlying information and educational level of support for the physicians, as well as for the patient’s at El Camino Hospital.

A good example of that would be say an internist who may not see a lot of breast cancer patients for example, by nature of his practice, but he has a patient who might be at risk for inherited breast cancer. Instead of sending them across town to some other genetic center, somewhere else, they’re able to actually say, you can work with our partner DNA Direct, go do a counseling session online with them or use our website or use our counselors for support. If the doctor had a question about whether or not this patient was appropriate for testing, the doctor may call and talk to one of our counselors first or send us an e-mail. It’s like we’re an adjunct to their office.

At the end of the day, the physician may or may not order testing for the patient, but if they do, then DNA Direct would be part of the support service in doing the interpretation and the results back to the patient and the physician.

Grace: So, just to be clear, you’re not a genetic testing company.

Ryan: No, we’re not. On our directed consumer site, we work with lab partners, whether it’s Labcorp, Myriad, Genetics, and we will help facilitate that test. DNA Direct has never made money on testing. We don’t mark up a penny. We don’t mark up testing. In that sense, it’s always been really great because we’re basically, you know, independent.

Grace: Can you give examples of specific support can DNA Direct give to the patients?

Ryan: For example, for a patient who’s interested in getting BRCA testing from us, we do a true generation family medical history, a three-generation pedigree. We take personal and family medical history. To really put a result in context and you know that as a genetics specialist, that’s an incredibly important part.

Grace: And as for support to physicians?

Ryan: What our job is, as we see it, as a support to the physicians [at El Camino] is to let them know what the testing areas are right now in molecular diagnostics that are going to be a value to physicians in their day-to-day practice. For the oncologist who is working with breast cancer patients, you want to make sure that they fully understand the value Wof onco-type DX. We can support that position and their patient’s around those kinds of predictive and diagnostic markers that are going to help identify who is appropriate for chemotherapy. Who’s going to have a more aggressive type of cancer? We want to put that result in context to the patient, so that they understand why a particular drug may or may not be appropriate for them or why chemotherapy might not be beneficial to them. We look at this whole field of genomics in that light. How do we, as a company, help these physicians increase their adoption of really valuable, state of the art, emerging technologies and help ease that adoption of technology into their practice?

Grace: And the patients have direct access to your counselors?

Ryan:They do have access directly to our site through their physician.They do have to be referred. That being said, as you know DNA Direct has a lot of free content on our website.

Or before testing, if they want to have a counseling session before, they’ll have access to our counselors. They’ll have access to our personalized reports and some of our decision support tools. This is a really comprehensive program.

Grace: Yes, and the patient benefits from all of that. More thoroughly than just having a physician, even with all the genetic background he had would probably not be the most confident to answer what only a genetic counselor can answer.

Ryan: Exactly. If you think about it, for a patient who does get a test result, by working with DNA direct, you’re going to get a 30 or 40 page personalized report on that diagnostic that was done. That patient can share that information with their family. They can share it with other physicians. It’s really very different than what you get one on one, even with the best of all doctors.