January 28, 2020 (Huntsville, Ala.) – HudsonAlpha Health Alliance, LLC and East Alabama Medical Center (EAMC) in Opelika, Ala. have launched a pilot program aimed at improving the health of EAMC employees.
The new program offers genomic health screening to select employees eligible to participate in the pilot program based on their current cholesterol levels. The program is designed to screen for how effective the employee’s current statin medication is working to control their cholesterol level based on their individual genetic profile, as well as other health factors.
Often, medications will prove effective for one person, but ineffective for another person. This program may help health care providers optimize treatments for individuals participating in the screening program.
“We firmly believe that the field of genomics holds unlimited possibilities in improving our overall health and well-being,” said Susan Johnston, VP of Human Resources with East Alabama Medical Center. “This employee program is strictly voluntary,” Johnston explained, “but we believe the benefits can be impactful to the overall health of our employees. Our intention is to help improve the overall long-term effectiveness of the healthcare of our employees, and provide them and their physicians with information to make the best possible health care decisions.”
“The future of medicine includes an integrated analysis of personal genetic data, combined with other patient health data, that will help guide care and therapy,” says Devin Absher, PhD, Director of Genomic Health at HudsonAlpha.
“The Health Alliance provides opportunities for health systems and employers to access our genomics expertise to improve health care. By working closely with physicians and health care providers, the HudsonAlpha Health Alliance works to develop customized genomic health screening programs for health systems, physician networks, and employers, and provides an integrated clinical solution that is often a challenge for these groups to build themselves,” Absher explains.
The power of genomic testing can provide insights into early disease risk detection and intervention, help us make better health decisions, and even target health therapies that lead to better health outcomes. The HudsonAlpha Health Alliance was built to enable health systems to advance their precision medicine programs through a collaboration with HudsonAlpha Health Alliance’s team of scientists, clinicians, and educators. The combined expertise of EAMC and the HudsonAlpha Health Alliance for this pilot program is an example of how this type of collaboration can impact the health of EAMC’s employees.
For more information about the HudsonAlpha Health Alliance, visit https://hudsonalpha.org/alliance/.
About HudsonAlpha: HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is a nonprofit institute dedicated to developing and applying scientific advances to health, agriculture, learning, and commercialization. Opened in 2008, HudsonAlpha’s vision is to leverage the synergy between discovery, education, medicine, and economic development in genomic sciences to improve the human condition around the globe. The HudsonAlpha biotechnology campus consists of 152 acres nestled within Cummings Research Park, the nation’s second largest research park. The state-of-the-art facilities co-locate nonprofit scientific researchers with entrepreneurs and educators. HudsonAlpha has become a national and international leader in genetics and genomics research and biotech education and fosters more than 40 diverse biotech companies on campus. To learn more about HudsonAlpha, visit hudsonalpha.org.
Media Contact:
Margetta Thomas
mthomas@hudsonalpha.org
256-327-0425
