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Maximizing the value of genomic data in healthcare
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Learn more about BC Platforms GeneVision for Precision Medicine on AppSource |
Nino da Silva, Executive Vice President at BC Platforms, is an entrepreneur and business executive with extensive experience in the medical IT and informatics field. Over the last 20 years, he has worked with several global medical technology and software companies such as eCare, Agfa Healthcare, GE Healthcare, Siemens Healthcare, and Philips Healthcare. He is also a co-author on several scientific abstracts and journal articles.
David Turcotte, C+E Health and Government Global Industry Director at Microsoft, sat down with Nino to discuss the future of genomics in medicine and how technology solutions like BC Platforms’ GeneVision for Precision Medicine will drive a renaissance in medical research and technology.
David Turcotte: Tell us about your background. What brought you to the field of genomics?
Nino da Silva: I started out as a radiology engineer, and during the 1990s, I experienced the digitization of radiology in the Nordics, which was a huge advance for medicine. I quickly understood that a similar transformation would occur in genetics. I knew that once we merged our understanding of phenotypic data—the way we live, eat, and exercise—with genetic data, our understanding of disease biology would completely change, and our understanding of humans would shift as well. I wanted to be part of this transformation, which is occurring right now.
What advances in genomics technology are driving the utilization of genomics in healthcare?
Over the last several years, we have seen significant advances in genome sequencing technology and genomic data processing. The ability to process genomic data in the cloud, for example, has increased throughput and efficiency, and the cost of genome sequencing has decreased considerably. This lowers the barrier for entry to introducing genomics in healthcare at a large scale.
But it’s not technology alone that’s driving applications of genomics in medicine. Scientific advances are also key. As research progresses, we’re learning more and more about what role genes play in our health in terms of disease and treatment.
Precision medicine, an approach focused on providing tailored treatment for each patient, is a key application of genomics in healthcare, and it’s directly linked to both the population scalability enabled by new technologies and the advances in research. With the ability to collect genomic data at population scale, researchers can create a robust evidence base that enables physicians to find the right treatment for each patient.
That said, the time between academic findings and actionable applications in healthcare settings can be years. Every application of genetics in healthcare today is based on research that was done decades ago. This process is only now beginning to accelerate.
How does the BC Platforms GeneVision solution enable providers to leverage genomic insights sooner?
The infrastructure required to collect, process, and deliver genomic data to the point of care is a key barrier for healthcare applications. It requires a vast internal infrastructure and significant computational power. It’s also important that the entire process is highly automated, validated, controllable, and auditable to ensure quality control and patient safety.
With GeneVision, healthcare organizations start achieving results the day they become a customer, without the expertise or expense required to build their own infrastructure and design processes.
Are there any stakeholders who are slowing the implementation of genomics healthcare strategies within healthcare organizations?
Many organizations struggle to get buy-in from their physicians. Physicians may be extraordinarily skilled in their areas of expertise, but they’re rarely comfortable using genomic data. It can be challenging to convince them that genomic reports are easy to understand, actionable, and accurate.
GeneVision delivers a clear report on patient genetic variants at the point of care, enabling physicians to incorporate their patients’ genomic data at the point of care without a granular understanding of genomics. For example, say you have a patient who is going in for open heart surgery. The GeneVision report shows that the patient is likely a high metabolizer for warfarin, a blood thinner that treats and prevents blood clots. With this data, the physician immediately knows what to do and how to think. This is simple, actionable data that offers an immediate benefit.
We must educate physicians on how they can benefit from leveraging genomic evidence in patient care. Equipped with genomic data, physicians can quickly make more precise diagnoses and select more effective treatments, creating better quality of life for patients. This enables physicians to meet the increasing demands to see more patients, while improving outcomes and lowering costs. We are thrilled to partner with Microsoft to evangelize on the promise of precision medicine and deliver the GeneVision solution to our customers.
Why was Microsoft a natural choice for you, and what benefits have you realized by partnering with Microsoft?
Microsoft has spent substantial time and resources on developing tools specifically for genomics and ensuring the Azure cloud platform has functionalities that enable optimal operation of the GeneVision solution. Very few of the large infrastructure providers are spending the time to build this level of expertise in genomics. As a result, Microsoft has been a true partner to us in making GeneVision not only possible, but even more powerful than we imagined.
What do you see as the future of genomics in healthcare?
GeneVision, along with other comparable technology solutions, will be part of a paradigm shift in which we bring actionable data and understanding of genomics into healthcare, which will boost continued discovery and technology development. These solutions will create new knowledge and information flows that will drive a renaissance where inventions trigger more inventions, driving us rapidly forward.
This is only possible if the costs for healthcare organizations remain low. The introduction of new technologies places additional pressure on their already tight budgets. A key benefit of GeneVision is that it supports both whole genome sequencing and genotyping, which is currently the more cost-effective method to generate and store genomic data. Although the cost of whole genome sequencing is coming down, this flexibility is essential to enable rapid proliferation of genomics applications in healthcare.
The scenario enabled by solutions like GeneVision will help us accelerate to future scenarios. The next phase is high acceptance of genomic data across healthcare. Yet, it’s important to keep in mind that genomics is not the final solution or a replacement for existing tools. Rather, genomics will become yet another tool in every physician’s toolbox—along with pathology, radiology, or any other “-ology”—that generates the data necessary to synthesize a truly precise diagnosis and treatment for every patient.
How is BC Platforms positioning itself for this future?
What BC Platforms has been building for the last twenty years has culminated in the ability to take large amounts of genomic data and provide stringent and high-precision results for the benefit of each individual patient. We are extremely well-equipped to do this, which we have proven by building some of the largest-volume systems to date and collecting data from millions of patients. We are perfectly aligned to deliver the insights that physicians need and we will continue to build on this in the future.
Partner with BC Platforms
Leverage BC Platforms GeneVision for Precision Medicine to equip your physicians with the tools they need to improve and accelerate patient outcomes. With over twenty years of experience building genomic data management and analysis solutions, BC Platforms is a trusted partner to healthcare providers and research institutions around the world.
Learn more about BC Platforms GeneVision for Precision Medicine on AppSource.
