During a mainstage discussion at the 2019 HLTH innovation conference in Las Vegas, Margo Georgiadis, chief executive officer of Ancestry, announced they have made a $1 million educational grant to UpToDate to independently develop information for healthcare providers to help them interpret and act on the results of genetic testing. The grant is part of Ancestry’s long-term commitment to partnering with healthcare stakeholders to improve preventive health.
As millions of consumers choose to take DNA tests to gain greater insight into their health and wellness, healthcare providers must be prepared to have informed and meaningful conversations with their patients, helping them understand how their genes influence their health to enable them to take actionable next steps.
A recent Journal of Personalized Medicine article noted, however, that relevant genetic knowledge among healthcare providers, including primary care physicians, lags consumer enthusiasm for genetic screens. “For practicing providers, opportunities to engage with and learn about genomic medicine may be limited. Thus, identifying effective strategies for provider education is critical to close the gap in physician preparedness for genetics/genomics and precision medicine,” the journal reported.
Ancestry’s educational grant to UpToDate is designed to help fill this knowledge gap as part of Ancestry’s unique focus on partnering with the healthcare industry toward improved health outcomes. The content, which will provide practical, accessible and contemporary information to help physicians advise their patients, is expected to be available on UpToDate platforms and Ancestry’s website in early 2020.
Earlier this month, Ancestry launched AncestryHealth, which, through a highly supportive and guided experience, delivers actionable insights that can empower people to take proactive steps – in collaboration with their healthcare provider – to address potential health risks identified in their genes and family health history.
“As we scale our AncestryHealth services to millions of consumers, we are committed to ensuring broad availability of educational materials to support healthcare providers who are engaging with patients about genetic risks and the proactive steps they can take to improve health outcomes,” said Georgiadis. “Ancestry’s educational grant to UpToDate is an important step to accelerate wide availability of this important information for physicians.”
