Inova Health Performs Genomic Tests for All Newborns

Inova Health is making genomic testing a routine part of care as early in their patients’ lives as possible. Today, when a baby is born at Inova, a genomic test is run less than 24 hours after delivery as part of routine care. These test results can trigger alerts built in Epic to warn providers about medications that might have increased or decreased effectiveness based on the child’s genetics, helping to avoid adverse drug events as early as possible. Genomic experts are also available at the bedside to educate families, and Inova provides videos and FAQs for both patients and physicians.

In their presentation at HIMSS, Inova stressed that it takes a strong infrastructure of alerts to translate genetic results into actionable consequences, and these alerts need to be tailored to the type of provider who will read them. As the healthcare industry makes more advances in preemptive care, Inova looks forward to seeing more ways to find proverbial needles in the haystack of “big data.” In their own words, “Big data is sexy, but what is clinically relevant is small and messy.”

Check out the slides from Inova’s HIMSS presentation here.