Category: Clinicians
Press Release:
Concert Genetics and Trapelo Health Partner to Advance Molecular Oncology Decision Support

Partnership Seeks to Lower Barriers to Evidence-Based Molecular Oncology Care by Extending Trapelo’s Decision Support Solutions Through Concert’s Network of Labs and Health Plans BURLINGTON, Ma. and NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Dec. 10, 2020) – Concert Genetics and Trapelo Health announced today that they have partnered to provide a streamlined, integrated solution that will expand access to evidence-based, […]


Thu. December 10, 2020
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Integrating Genetics into the Clinical Workflow

As mentioned in an earlier blog post, the Genetic Health Information Network Summit convenes leading from voices across healthcare to share practical challenges and actionable solutions to enable precision medicine. An issue frequently discussed in past Summits (summarized here) is the difficulty of integrating genetics into the clinical workflow. A dizzying array of genetic tests […]


Thu. November 12, 2020
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Press Release:
Concert Genetics Presents Real-World Data on Utilization of NGS-Based Diagnostic Tests in NCCN 2020 Abstract

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (April 1, 2020) – Concert Genetics, a technology company dedicated to advancing precision medicine, today announced the publication of real-world data on utilization and coding variability in medical claims for Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS)-based diagnostic tests. The study was done in collaboration with Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, and […]


Wed. April 1, 2020
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Announcing The New and Improved Concert Platform

Latest update adds insurance coverage information and other enhancements to the market’s leading genetic test order management platform Earlier today, we announced the release of the latest version of our genetic test ordering management system – The Concert Platform (formerly GeneConnect®) – adding compelling new capabilities to a platform used by leading hospitals and health […]


Thu. February 8, 2018
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Press Release: Oregon Health & Science University Engages GeneConnect® Genetic Test Utilization Management Solution

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (July 13, 2016) — NextGxDx Inc. (*now Concert Genetics) today announced an agreement with Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) to deliver GeneConnect®, the genetic test utilization management solution that enables healthcare institutions to lower the costs and address the workflow inefficiencies associated with genetic test ordering. “Genetic testing is the key to […]


Wed. July 13, 2016
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Press Release: Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center Engages GeneConnect® Genetic Test Utilization Management Solution

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (June 1, 2016) — NextGxDx Inc. (*now Concert Genetics) today announced an agreement with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center to deliver GeneConnect®, the genetic test utilization management solution that enables healthcare institutions to lower the costs and address the workflow inefficiencies associated with genetic test ordering. “Genetic testing is the lynchpin of personalized medicine, but […]


Wed. June 1, 2016
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Webinar from PreventionGenetics – Deletions and Duplications: Why They’re Important and How to Get the Most Accurate Results for Your Patients

This week, our colleagues at PreventionGenetics will be hosting a webinar about testing for deletions and duplications. Knowing this is a pertinent topic to many of our readers, we’re pleased to share details about their event. It’s a free session featuring Laboratory Director Dr. Diane Allingham-Hawkins. Register here. A webinar from: Deletions and Duplications: Why They’re Important and How […]


Tue. April 12, 2016
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The Promise of Data Science and the Challenges of the Clinical Workflow (notes from #PMWC16)

One of the most exciting things to behold at this year’s Personalized Medicine World Conference  is the increasingly innovative ways that companies and healthcare providers are combining disparate data sources and deploying analytic tools to generate insights that are useful and actionable for clinicians. This is no small feat. It won’t surprise anyone reading this […]


Wed. January 27, 2016
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Smoking, lung function, and the genetics that explain it

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications The percentage of smokers in the United States declined by almost 15% between 2005 and 2013 (the latest date for which survey results are available), from 20.9% to 17.8% of adults (cdc.gov). However, that still leaves more than 40 million adults who are active smokers. In […]


Tue. December 22, 2015
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Press Release: Cincinnati Children’s Engages GeneConnect® Genetic Test Utilization Management Solution

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (December 21, 2015) — NextGxDx Inc. (*now Concert Genetics) today announced an agreement with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center to deliver GeneConnect®, the genetic test utilization management solution that enables healthcare institutions to create genetic testing formularies that can lower the costs and address the workflow inefficiencies associated with genetic test ordering. “Genetic […]


Mon. December 21, 2015
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Genetic analysis reveals defective protein leading to mitral valve prolapse

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications Another small but important piece has been fitted in to the endless puzzle of genetic predisposition to disease. This time, a gene responsible for a cardiac condition found in ~2% of individuals has been uncovered by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital. Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) has […]


Tue. December 15, 2015
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Genetic Diversity: Another note on the ASCO policy statement

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications Last week, we talked about the updated ASCO policy on genetic testing in oncology. With that out of the way, I wanted to take a quick look at two issues that were only mentioned in the accompanying editorial but worth another pass. Authors Paul Yu, Julie […]


Wed. December 2, 2015
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Bonding over turkey and heritable disease

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications A lot of stories get told around the Thanksgiving table that tend to be, well, less than historically accurate. What better time to push family lore just a little bit further than when everyone’s there to join fun? And then there are the old wives tales […]


Tue. November 24, 2015
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Updates to the ASCO Policy on Genetic Testing in Oncology

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications More medical technology available for a lower price changes the way we interact with and use that technology. Nowhere is this more evident than in medical genetics and its explosive growth over the past couple of decades. To deal with the rapid expansion of next generation […]


Tue. November 10, 2015
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Naming Conventions and Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications We all know the feeling: A new project starts, so we set up a folder system and naming convention and get to work. It works pretty well for a while; most of the files fit into the folder hierarchy on our computer and the names generally […]


Tue. October 27, 2015
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Evaluating Genetic Literacy in Minority Populations, Opportunities for Education

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications One of the challenges in medical care and genetic counseling is the gap between statistical analysis of issues on a population-wide scale, and the interaction with and dissemination of information to individual patients. The problem is that while trends within large groups can be observed (e.g., […]


Wed. September 16, 2015
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Genetic Counseling Recommended for Young Colorectal Cancer Patients

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications The value of genetic counseling for both patients and families has been reinforced by a recent study on colorectal cancer out of MD Anderson Cancer Center. The study, titledHigh Prevalence of Hereditary Cancer Syndromes in Adolescents and Young Adults With Colorectal Cancer and published in the […]


Tue. September 8, 2015
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The Scope of Medical Genetics: ACMG Updates Rapidly Growing Responsibilities

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications A lot changes in seven years. This is especially true when it comes to technology. Even if the scientific and medical worlds don’t have a direct corollary to Moore’s Law, the principle of amazingly rapid advances in technology and knowledge still hold true. With this space […]


Tue. September 1, 2015
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Whole Exome Sequencing Leads to Personalized Care for Aortic Aneurysms

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications In 2009, over 10,500 deaths were caused by ruptured aortic aneurysms, while the same condition contributed to another 17,000. Aneurysms occur when a vessel wall weakens, causing a bulge like that seen in a water balloon squeezed in a fist. When the pressure becomes too great, […]


Tue. August 25, 2015
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Patients with schizophrenia display an increased burden of detrimental variants, according to a new genome-wide study

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications Uncovering the etiologies of mental diseases has been a huge challenge for scientists and clinicians alike. The underlying processes that lead to mental illness are multifactorial, with biological, genetic and environmental/lifestyle contributors all playing a role. Though we are still a long way off from a […]


Wed. August 12, 2015
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Closing the gap between the promise and reality of genetic testing: Is data sharing the answer?

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications These days, there is a significant push in parts of the genetics community to share testing results. One of the organizations spearheading this effort is Free the Data, which focuses on getting patients to contribute their BRCA1/2 sequences to an anonymized database for use in research. […]


Tue. August 4, 2015
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Editing the Human Genome

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications Two posts ago we looked at new advances in the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system. The DNA-snipping bacterial immune response has been adapted and adopted incredibly quickly by scientists. Arguably, CRISPR’s promise for everything from cell culture experiments in academic labs to curing human genetic diseases makes […]


Tue. July 28, 2015
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ASHG Issues Updated Position Statement on Genetic Testing in Minors

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications The American Society of Human Genetics has just released a new position statement about genetic testing of minors. The statement, titled “Points to Consider: Ethical, Legal and Psychosocial Implications of Genetic Testing in Children and Adolescents,” was published at the beginning of July in the American […]


Thu. July 23, 2015
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Faster genetic screening in fish to help solve diseases in man

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications Determining whether a genetic mutation is causative of a specific phenotype or disease is a significant challenge in both basic research and clinical practice. Now, a team of researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute (part of the NIH) has developed a method to make […]


Thu. July 9, 2015
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Opinions on Genetic Testing from the Early Adopters

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications The past few weeks have been filled with articles dealing with the distribution and use of genetic test results. As we have pointed out on this blog, the underlying theme is that gaining a full(er) understanding of the clinical implications of any given genetic variant will […]


Wed. July 1, 2015
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Press Release: NextGxDx and Seattle Children’s Hospital’s PLUGS® Program Collaborate on Comprehensive Genetic Testing Utilization Management Solution

PLUGS clinical and UM content to be distributed through GeneConnect™ platform SEATTLE, June 25, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Seattle Children’s Hospital today announced that it will collaborate with NextGxDx, Inc. (*now Concert Genetics) to develop a joint genetic test utilization management (UM) solution for children’s hospitals and pediatric practices. The collaboration will combine the hospital’s PLUGS […]


Thu. June 25, 2015
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Mapping the genetics of treatment-resistant prostate cancer

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications What happens when a disease becomes resistant to all known therapies? The two instances that first come to mind are multi-resistant bacterial infections, and any number of cancers. In the latter category, metastatic prostate cancer frequently becomes resistant to available therapeutics. Androgen deprivation therapy is a […]


Tue. June 23, 2015
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New Genetic Mutations Identified in Autism Spectrum Disorders

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications A couple of months ago, this blog published a post on two recent papers dealing with new advances in research on the genetics of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In one, the authors were able to identify autism with high accuracy using gene expression levels. In the […]


Wed. June 10, 2015
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Panel Testing, Part 3: Recommended Use for Panel Tests

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications Last September, The National Comprehensive Cancer Network published an update to their guidelines for Genetic/Familial High-Risk Assessment for Breast and Ovarian cancers. This extensive document included a large section discussing the use of multi-gene panel testing. Again highlighting the uncertainty and concern, the first paragraph of […]


Tue. June 2, 2015
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Panel Testing Part 2: Actionable Data…again

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications Continuing on from the previous post broadly describing the issues around genetic panel testing, this post will go into a bit more detail regarding panel tests and the ever-present issue of actionable data and variants of unknown significance. Researchers and clinicians are pressing forward in determining […]


Fri. May 22, 2015
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Panel Testing Part 1: The genetics arm race leads to clinical questions

By: David Shifrin, PhD Science Writer, Filament Life Science Communications Bundling. It’s done in practically every industry, from adding optional features on a new car, to internet and phone service, to academic journal subscriptions. Medicine is no exception. These days, bundling is common in the world of genetic testing. The use of panel tests has increased […]


Thu. May 14, 2015
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New Recommendations for Prenatal Genetic Testing

By: David Shifrin, PhD Life Science Consultant and Freelance Writer The European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) and the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) have released new recommendations for prenatal testing. At the center of the discussion and recommendations is the use of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) as a complement or alternative to procedures […]


Thu. April 30, 2015
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