A handful of healthcare offices in southeast Michigan are offering free genetic screening to their existing patients to test for early indicators of treatable medical conditions like heart disease and cancer.
The pilot program is being tested out by Corewell Health East to help patients be more proactive with their health and to demonstrate the benefits of preventative care.
Testing screens for 167 genes and can detect disease decades before symptoms would appear. At-risk patients are then connected with genetic counselors and work with their primary care physician to come up with a customized prevention plan.
Since June 2022, participating offices in Troy, Westland, Warren and Dearborn have completed more than 500 genetic tests. Those tests have found actionable results in about 20% of patients, and close to 50% either have an actionable result or are found to be carriers of a genetic disorder, according to Dr. Julie Zenger Hain, director of the clinical genetics at Corewell Health’s Beaumont Hospital in Dearborn.
“People are seeking out genetic testing more frequently now,” she said. “Through this pilot program, we’re creating a system that offers more advanced testing to our patients in the primary care setting – one that makes it easy for patients to act on the information with support from their primary care physician, as well as to make more informed health decisions and share the information with family members.”
Testing requires a saliva sample be taken via a simple at-home test. Results take about 2-3 weeks.
Corewell’s screening program looks specifically at genes that healthcare providers and patients can do something about. Conditions included in the gene list include:
- 10 types of cancer including breast, ovarian, uterine, colorectal, gastric, pancreatic, prostate, renal cell, thyroid, and cutaneous melanoma.
- Cardiac conditions like arrhythmias, cardiomyopathies, thrombophilia, and genetic forms of high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
- Other conditions like malignant hyperthermia, familial Mediterranean fever, hereditary hemochromatosis, Wilson disease and other metabolic disorders.
Dr. Zenger Hain said this type of genetic screening typically costs patients about $350 per test. Through Corewell’s pilot program, however, the health system is picking up the tab with the help of donor funds.
“It was decided by the institution that this is something that needs to be explored so we basically self-funded it to expand it,” said Dr. Rich Kennedy, program lead and director of research at Corewell Health East. “We think it’s important to our initiatives in population health and health equity.”
The health system declined to publicize which offices were participating in the pilot, but said existing patients at those locations should have gotten an email about the opportunity, and/or heard about it from their primary care physician.
Family members of at-risk patients, who may also be at risk, are also eligible for no-cost screening with a script from their primary care physician.
Dr. Stephen Williams, a primary care internal medicine physician at one of the participating offices, said they’ve found genetic conditions in elderly people that could be used to warn their kids and grandkids. They’ve also found conditions in parents and subsequently in their kids through further testing.
Corewell’s goal is to test 1,000 patients within the first year, and 10,000 patients and their family members over the next three years. The system will seek grant funding in the future to expand the program.
“We want to show by being proactive and addressing health concerns early on, we can save money down the road and most importantly, improve the health of the community one patient at a time,” Kennedy said.
Source : M Live
