Mar 4, 2024
Dr. Doron Behar, Co-Founder and CEO of Igentify, has a vision for the future of genetic counseling, where patients get the support they need to interpret and understand genetic screening results before the tests as well as after. With a shortage of genetic counselors, the solution, in part, lies in using technology to reduce waiting times and improve the interpretation of results while allowing the counselors to handle more patients effectively. The Igentify platform aims to support end-to-end services to provide precision medicine solutions to patients to meet specific needs and identify what test results might indicate about future health.
Doron explains, "We need to first speak about the genomic revolution and the crucial role of genetic counseling in it. So, as we know, we are all currently going through the genomic revolution, which means that we are anticipating that each of us will have genomic information, the full content of the genome, inside the medical record. The genetic counselors are the ones who are responsible for interpreting for us and explaining to us what our genome is telling us about our future health."
"And particularly, the genome can identify potential risks that we might want to know about, whether it is related to reproductive health, cancer risk, or the use of drug pharmacogenomics. We can see literature saying that even recently, there were more than 5 million genetic tests sold in 2021. Less than 6,000 genetic counselors can present the information to the patients, and they are in North America. And if we compare to the world, there are only 7,500 genetic counselors globally."
"The force model will allow us to use the digital genetic assistant and send information back to the patients, creating an end-to-end solution. Very importantly, we are using advanced and sophisticated multimedia content to approach the patients either in the pre- or in the post-test scenarios. These multimedia components allow speaking with the patients about their own situation. So maintaining a very high level of personalization, even speaking different languages to the patients, is particularly important, for example, to make sure that patients understand."
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