They're HEEEERE!!! Navigenics in New York

Well in a move to trump NY or a business plan that does include physicians. Navigenics will Launch April 8th in NYC!!!

That's right

From a counselor's email sent by dnanyc@navigenics.com

Dear xxx,

Navigenics invites you to be one of the first people in NYC to experience first-hand a leading-edge approach to health and wellness.

Navigenics is launching its first genetics service April 8th. We truly believe this company will revolutionize the way we think about our health. Our first service, called the Navigenics Health Compass, tests for genetic risk markers for 18 actionable common conditions—cardiac disease, several cancers, Alzheimer’s among them—and arms you with specific information on how you can mitigate your individual risk for developing each condition, including personal genetic counseling sessions and customized health and wellness content. To celebrate the launch of our first service, we are coming to New York City for two weeks in April (April 8 – 17) to host a series of exciting and informative events. We will be installed at a SOHO location, and I encourage you to join us for some of our events. (Please see the calendar invitation below.)

Please help us celebrate this transformation for medicine: from a “sick care” model of “wait and see” to the emergence of early risk detection. The time has come to empower individuals with the opportunity and knowledge to take preventative steps, and a hands-on approach to their family’s health and wellness!

All the best,
The Navigenics Team

RSVP@navigenics.com

Now it will be interesting to see how their competitors 23andMe and deCodeMe react. Our practices stand ready to pick up the pieces and serve as an information source for both patients and physicians who have lost their compass, or just want to learn about this new technology.

The Sherpa Says:
I'll be there. How about you? To all my physician freinds, give me a call and I can explain what the hell is going on.... You should go to these events....Seriously, they look pretty impressive

Personalized Medicine. Coming To A Hospital Near You!

The Houston Business Journal today reports on a ground breaking ceremony for Baylor College of Medicine.

"The soon-to-be Baylor Clinic and Hospital will be constructed at Old Spanish Trail and Cambridge Street in the Texas Medical Center area.

The campus will include an adult hospital, outpatient clinics, faculty offices and research space. The fully integrated health care facility, which will focus on personalized, gene-based medicine, will be open for business in 2010.
The Houston-based school also said its "Best Minds, Best Medicine" fundraising campaign is nearly half way to its $1 billion goal for clinical, research and education projects."

Baylor is best known in genetics circle as the place you send your CMA/CGHs. Personally, this is a great accomplishment. They now join the ranks of TGen, Mount Sinai, Duke, Mayo, Michigan State and Harvard in planning and implementing "Personalized Medicine Departments/Hospitals"

The problem I see is: Whom will talk with the primary care physicians in a language they can understand? Surely these patients will get genetic guided therapies and hopefully get some excellent counseling, but will the PMD have the knowledge to understand what was done? What about the patient. Will there be an educational program directed at clinic physicians? Where do non-clinic patients get their care? Will the summary reports be at a level the PMD can digest?

The Gene Sherpa Says: All this planning is great, but can we have something Right NOW?