San Francisco-based Dignity Health and Englewood, Colo.-based Catholic Health Initiatives launched the Precision Medicine Alliance, a program that will be available at nearly 150 hospitals and care centers across the United States.
Initially, the alliance will focus on advanced diagnostic tumor profiling in cancer treatment. The program will then expand into other areas such as cancer and cardiovascular risk as well as pharmacogenomics. Additionally, the alliance will create a database for clinical cancer data.
Through the alliance, Dignity Health and CHI will partner with laboratories and bioinformatics companies to develop individual-specific molecular tests for patients. The Precision Medicine Alliance is also aligned with the national Precision Medicine Initiative, a $215 million investment from the White House.
"The Precision Medicine Alliance will provide community physicians with access to a wide range of diagnostic technology that is currently only available in academic medical centers. This will provide more accurate diagnoses, with personalized therapies tailored to each patient through community providers, where the vast majority of care happens," said Lloyd Dean, president and CEO of Dignity Health, in a statement.
Serving approximately 12 million patients annually, the alliance creates the largest community-based precision medicine program in the country.
More articles on health IT:
HealthShare Exchange inks tighter contract with members
How Mercy created a $54M virtual hospital in St. Louis
Opinion: How network surveillance can stop hospital hackers