welcome to helix health

Welcome to Helix Health.

Well, I have been getting alot of questions regarding our personalized

medical practice on Park Avenue in New York City. I have been

reluctant to tell everyone, but I figure that I might as well let

everyone in on our "secret"

My philosophy is the power of genomics should empower patients and

providers.

Together as a team we can prevent some horrible diseases and avoid

some horrible adverse drug reactions. How do we do this? We take the

skills from a multidisciplinary team and identify risk. We feel that

the most powerful genomic tool out there is family history (Sorry

Hsien). This has been validated over and over again in epidemiological

studies. In fact when Mike Leavitt indicate in his foreward of his

Personalized Health Care report

"One part of the foundation for such a change is our rapidly growing

understanding of the human genome and the processes it directs. We

envision health care that could:

1. predict our individual susceptibility to disease based on genetic

and other factors;

provide more useful and person-specific tools for preventing

disease, based on that knowledge of individual susceptibility;

2. detect the onset of disease at the earliest moments, based on

newly discovered chemical markers that arise from changes at the

molecular level;

3. preempt the progression of disease, as a result of early

detection;

4. and target medicines and dosages more precisely and safely to each

patient, on the basis of genetic and other personal factors in

individual response to drugs. "

I thought he had read our business plan. But then I realized, anyone

with an insider view would have to conclude the same thing. This IS

personalized medicine. I think that the fields we will see explode are

services which Helix Health is offering.

The problem I have always had with academic genetics is 3-fold.

* Most geneticists are pediatricians (8 in 10) and have not been

trained in adult chronic diseases or even used most medications

that are intended for adults.

* Traditional genetic care offered in the "Ivory Towers" is diagnose

and adios. They have no desire to offer close follow up. In fact,

in the time that I worked at an academic center we did very little

to recontact those difficult clinical genetics cases. Only

metabolic patients get the close follow up needed.

* There is NO privacy at a big center. In most places you are pushed

through like a means to an end.

* The last problem I have with traditional genetics lies in how we

acquire medical information.

In a clinical genetics appointment of 45 min to 1 hour you get a fam

hx from the genetic counseling student which takes 20 minutes, they

attempt to take a medical history (despite having no medical

training), they then present to an attending or fellow (10-20min), who

then comes in a confirms the information. Now with 15-20 minutes the

attending has to explain complex genetics and inheritance to you, send

off subtelomeric, CGH, karyotype, genetic tests, etc. And you get ONE

follow up appointment and may wait 6 months for another appointment.

In a cancer genetic situation you do have more time. Perhaps if your

counselor is good, you get adequate follow up and acquisition of

information. You may be seeing a geneticist (Who has not trained in

adult oncology) or you may be seeing an oncologist (Who never trained

in genetics) If you even see a physician at all. This is not to knock

my CGC friends. They have truly great talent and training, but

learning what to do with your Plavix is not one of them. In fact our

head counselor said "When I took a family history and it looked like

there was early heart disease I said to myself 'I know something is

there, but what do WE do about it?' Therefore the problem lies in the

training or perhaps in the team.....

And please do not get me started with the Chop Shop known as "prenatal

genetics/high risk OB clinic" Where the standard is to get as many

people as possible into and out of the counselors office and the into

and out of the amnio as quickly as possible. Where is the CARE in

that? Is there any PRE-Conception care out there? There is at Helix

Health!

What kind of medical informatics system is employed at most academic

centers? Archaic at best in most. At least where I and my partners

have been. When even the highest powered EMRs cannot distinguish

between maternal or paternal lineage, then you have a problem.

Lastly, where is pharmacogenomics? Where is chronic disease risk

stratification? Oh I forgot, geneticists don't do this, nor is there

training for this in classical genetics fellowships. All of this and

more is available in my vision of what personalized medicine should

be. Helix Health is Personalized Medicine for the 21st Century(TM)

The Sherpa Says: Helix Health is my dream, my vision and the tip of

the personalized medicine spear. I know this may seem like an

advertisement, it is not. It is the road map which all personalized

medicine practices should follow. When you take Prediction, Prevention

and Privacy to the highest standards of care, you are bound to

succeed. Interested? Email contact@helixhealth.org