Partners prove transfer of genetic data

InterSystems Corporation says that its Ensemble integration platform has been used for the first-ever successful electronic transmission of comprehensive genetic data.

The information was sent cross-country from Boston-based Partners HealthCare Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine (PCPGM) to Intermountain HealthCare in Salt Lake City, Utah. The announcement marks a significant early step in the development of personalised medicine.

The clinical genomic networking system, called VariantWire, used InterSystems Ensemble as the foundation of a secure data transfer hub between the PCPGM laboratory and Intermountain healthcare in Utah.

Personalized medicine is based on the concept that genetic/genomic testing can provide information about a person that can be used to tailor medical care to individual needs. The addition of a patient’s genetic variation to an electronic health record (EHR) can, for example, help guide selection of drugs to minimize side effects or help build a strategy for a more successful treatment outcome.

For this first genetic data transfer case, a man from Utah was tested at PCPGM for an inherited heart condition called hypertropic cardiomyopathy.

The results were sent via VariantWire to Intermountain where the information was added to the individual’s EHR. The test showed that the patient wasn’t at risk for the heart condition and provided additional genetic data that is now available for storage and future analysis.

“InterSystems is very committed to the personalized medicine space and has provided us with excellent and enthusiastic support,” said Sandy Aronson, executive director of Information Technology at PCPGM.

The large amount and extreme complexity of the data that results from genetic testing are major challenges in the personalized medicine area. The amount of data involved mean that records can only be held electronically.

“There was a huge amount of validation testing that had to be done to ensure information accuracy,” said Aronson.

Another challenge is to make the genetic data practical to use by most physicians. “We’ll take this information and work with genetics specialists to write programs and create protocols that will assist doctors,” said Stan Huff, MD, chief medical informatics officer at Intermountain.

“It’s a privilege to provide the software technology that helped enable the attainment of this significant test milestone,” said Paul Grabscheid, InterSystems vice president of strategic planning.

“InterSystems is committed to the ongoing research and development that results in breakthroughs for information technology and we applaud PCPGM and Intermountain for this leap forward in personalized medicine.”