Health care organizations are always innovating to meet the needs of every patient so they can offer the best care possible. For Sanford Health, the next generation of care has arrived in the form of a genetic screening research study called ImagineYou.
ImagineYou builds on the legacy of Sanford Health’s dedication to improving and investing in its communities. With this new program, the organization is giving everyone the chance to learn how their DNA impacts their health at no cost to participants, but what it aims to accomplish goes way beyond individual care.
The purpose of ImagineYou
ImagineYou is a genetic screening research study and provides individual participants with their own results for certain cancers (including breast, colorectal and ovarian) and heart disease. This information and the secure data from the entire sample population will be used to research and improve health care in our communities for generations to come.
Sanford Health has partnered with Helix, the leading population genomics company in the U.S., to offer this screening to anyone over the age of 18 (or over the age of 19 for Nebraska residents) who wants to sign up for it.
Information that can help the community
Jeremy Cauwels, M.D., senior vice president and chief medical officer of Sanford Health and a research investigator for ImagineYou, said that Sanford Health has conducted studies like this in the past, but has never been able to use that information for further research.
“ImagineYou started as a new idea – every time we wanted to understand more about someone’s genetics or a community’s health risks as a whole, we had to take a new sample,” said Dr. Cauwels. “With ImagineYou, much of that information can be securely stored and looked at later without the need for a new sample. So, while this study initially screens for three conditions, it could lead to more information becoming available later on.”
The data from this study can help an entire community, too.
“If we want to understand the health risks of a population, we can query the data and see what areas have higher or lower concentrations of certain genetic risk factors,” said Dr. Cauwels.
Discovering trends in genetic health data at this scale can lead to improvements in health care, screenings and socioeconomic trends within a community. On a smaller scale, it can provide people with access to a high level of individualized care, commonly referred to as precision medicine.
Precision medicine benefits for study participants
Every ImagineYou study participant will have the opportunity to learn if they have a genetic risk for three health conditions. This level of detail in a patient’s health record gives providers an opportunity to tailor care directly to the patient’s needs.
“As individuals, we’re different, and therefore have different health care needs,” said Liz Wheeler, the senior director of operations at Sanford Imagenetics. “The whole idea of precision medicine is to find out how we can deliver personalized care to our patients, and using genetics is one way to do that.”
As of right now, the screening will look at genetic risk for three conditions. Each of them brings a higher inherited risk to the person for certain conditions or diseases compared to individuals who do not inherit these changes in their genetic code. These hereditary conditions include breast and ovarian cancers, colorectal cancers and an inherited form of high cholesterol.
Identifying these risks before they become a problem isn’t just a new way to treat someone – it’s an entirely new approach to health care.
“In medicine, for the last 100 years, the process has been to wait until someone gets sick, and then after that we can tell them what they’re sick from,” said Dr. Cauwels. “Now we’re moving into the place where we can start telling people what they have a higher risk for and what will make them sick later. The days of suffering a heart attack before you figured out you had heart disease should hopefully be moving into the past.”
How study participants can use their results to get better care
For some, having the knowledge of their medical risks seems scary and intimidating, but Wheeler said this data is meant to empower people so they can avoid major health issues and live longer, healthier lives.
“Some people may be hesitant to receive their results, but the goal is to use this information to be proactive so you don’t develop the disease,” said Wheeler. “There are things you can do about these conditions. Your provider can make recommendations and you can take certain actions. If you know there’s a risk for developing a condition, you can do more to prevent it.”
Wheeler said about 1% to 2% of participants in the ImagineYou study will test positive for one of these conditions. When someone tests positive for any of these genes through the study, they are offered a no-cost consultation with a genetic counselor to discuss their results.
“If someone gets a positive result, they get a referral to genetic counseling at no cost where we can talk about what this means for them and their families,” said Jen Leonhard, a senior genetic counselor at Sanford Imagenetics. “From there, we look at personal medical history and start discussing what we could do next, whether it’s getting screened or starting a course of preventive treatment.”
Analyzing DNA can uncover risks for cancers and conditions before they start to show symptoms. Once symptoms become obvious, the disease may be in a more advanced state, negatively impacting the patient’s prognosis.
“If we know about an increased risk, we can detect something like a cancer earlier,” said Leonhard. “For some cancers like ovarian cancer, it’s not that the cancer is deadly itself, but that the symptoms are initially so mild that we don’t detect it until it becomes dangerous. If we know you’re at a higher risk, that allows us to personalize care and preventive measures.”
What makes this study unique
What makes this study unique from many other DNA tests is that the results are automatically added to the patient’s medical record on My Sanford Chart, making it easily accessible for providers who may want to know more about a patient’s health risks.
“It’s hard to capture all facets of family medical history in primary care,” said Wheeler. “With this testing, people can identify their risks without even knowing their family history.”
Knowing these genetic risks can help a patient’s entire family, too. Since these genes are hereditary, a positive result in one relative can warn others to pay attention to their health and get tested themselves.
“If you carry one of these genes, there’s a good chance you can pass it on,” said Dr. Cauwels. “Even if you’re 70 years old and have already had your first heart attack, you could get tested and see that you have a gene that increases your risk for high cholesterol. Then you could warn your grandkids and other family members so they can do something about it and start preventive treatment early.”
The future of precision medicine
Dr. Cauwels, Wheeler and Leonhard see ImagineYou as a sign of things to come in health care.
“A growing number of health systems are joining in to develop population genomics programs,” said Wheeler. “This is the way of the future. Genomics in medicine is here to stay. It’s not going away.”
Using DNA screenings in precision medicine could particularly make a large impact on rural populations. By participating in a singular genetic screening, rural residents could receive a more advanced level of preventive care without having to travel back to a hospital.
“Imagine someone has to come from 100 or 200 miles to see a provider. If we take a sample of their blood while they’re here and we start understanding their genes a little bit better, we could find out their health risks,” said Dr. Cauwels.
“What if we didn’t have to bring them back to finish the analysis? We could get on a virtual visit with that person while they’re at work or in a tractor 200 miles away from the nearest hospital and tell them they need to start a medication to control their cholesterol now so they can avoid heart disease down the road. They could pick it up at their local pharmacy in town and start preventive treatment right away.”
Discovering genetic traits and regional ancestry in your DNA
While the primary goal of ImagineYou is to identify and study the health risks of the participants, people who enroll in the study get access to a wide variety of additional information.
This includes testing for genetic traits, which can tell people about their personal attributes like their sleep patterns and caffeine sensitivity level. The screening will also give them an overview of their regional ancestry, which not only helps them connect with their roots, but may inform their preventive care going forward.
“Some may not know anything about their ancestral background. Having a better understanding of your ancestral background could potentially personalize your care even more if people in a similar population segment as you have a higher rate of health problems,” said Leonhard.
All these additional tests are included with the screening, which carries no cost for the participant.
Why you should enroll in ImagineYou
“Genetic screenings can be time-saving and life-saving. They help us make sure we’re treating you based on what fits you – it doesn’t use a one-size-fits-all approach,” said Leonhard. “The more we know about genetics, the better our health care will be for future generations.”
Enrolling in ImagineYou is easy. There is no cost to participate and health insurance is not required. By choosing to enroll, participants will get valuable data about their health within weeks.
“You can’t change your genetics, but you can change your care,” said Leonhard.
Visit the ImagineYou website to enroll in the study today.
Learn more
- Family history: It’s an important part of your health
- Family faces multiple diagnoses for genetic condition NF1
- Sanford Health joins Undiagnosed Diseases Network
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Posted In Family Medicine, Genetics, Internal Medicine, Research
