On January 20, 2015, former US President Barack Obama proposed to carry out precision medicine research, which marked the beginning of precision medicine research in developed countries represented by the United States. Afterwards, with the encouragement of national leaders and the support of relevant favorable policies, my country's precision medicine research began immediately, and a major precision medicine project has been established. As an important part of precision medicine, genetic testing has also developed rapidly in recent years.
Yesterday, the "2018 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Life and Health Innovation Forum and Gene Industry Mid-year Conference" hosted by Genehui and undertaken by China Science and Technology Puri was held in Qianhai Bay, Shenzhen. At the meeting, 30 senior industry experts from policy, scientific research, clinical, industry and capital brought 14 dry goods sharing and 4 special discussions. Among them, six guests including Gu Weihong, founder of Doctor Gu's studio, discussed the topic of "How can genetic testing move towards a routine medical test?"
The difference and boundary of genetic testing in medical and health consultation applications
Various diseases have different effects on individuals, ranging from birth defects to middle-aged and elderly diseases, covering the entire life cycle. Genes are the link between medical treatment and health, which highlights the importance of genetic testing.
Genetic testing can be used in the medical field to diagnose and screen diseases, but it can also be used in health consultations to help people predict disease risks. However, at this stage, there is a clear boundary between genetic testing for patients (genetic diseases and tumors) and direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing.
So where are the differences and boundaries between genetic testing in medical and health consultation applications? In Xingbo Bio's CEO Chai Yingshuang, to distinguish the boundaries between genetic testing in medical and health consultation applications, we must first distinguish the recipients of genetic testing. If the recipient of the genetic test is a clinician, then for the doctor, he will pay more attention to the effectiveness and practicality of the genetic test, because the doctor regards the genetic test as a diagnostic tool. If the recipient is ordinary people, then the people may not only need the results of the genetic test report, but also know how to carry out follow-up examinations and treatments after the results are obtained.
But in the future, such boundaries may gradually become blurred with the development of technology and industry, and will merge in some parts. At the meeting, Gu Weihong said that in the future, genetic testing institutions for disease diagnosis can try to enter the health field to dissolve boundaries. At the same time, these institutions will use their original awe of medical care to promote the development of the entire genetic testing industry.
Should clinical-level genetic testing be dominated by hospitals? Or a third-party testing agency?
With the significant reduction in sequencing costs and the significant increase in bioinformatics analysis capabilities, the R&D and commercialization of sequencers, the establishment of supporting bioinformatics computing platforms, the advancement of scientific R&D and clinical transformation in the field of genomes, the size of the gene sequencing market in recent years improve dramatically.
It is under this background that in recent years, third-party medical laboratories have developed rapidly, and compared with hospital laboratories, third-party medical laboratories have more testing items and have advantages in scale. Traditional medical laboratories only provide medical testing and pathological diagnosis. However, with the maturity of genetic testing technology, some testing centers with medical institution resources have begun to provide special genetic testing services, such as Golden Field Testing and Dean Diagnostics.
So in the future, will clinical-level genetic testing be hospital-led or a third-party testing agency? Zhou Wenhao, deputy dean of Pediatrics Hospital of Fudan University, believes that from a long-term perspective, if genetic testing is to be achieved to the extent of "machined production", it must not be a matter for hospitals, and a third-party testing agency must be entered. , To promote its development together. However, genetic testing has to return to the hospital to solve the problem in the end. Therefore, the relationship between the hospital and the third-party testing agency should be more of a cooperative relationship, each performing its own duties to build the entire territory of genetic testing.
Sun Liying, the former head of the FDA review team, believes that clinical-level genetic testing must be done by private testing agencies overseas, because only by using various forces can the entire industry become stronger and bigger, and if genetic testing is still done in hospitals Leading, hospitals and third-party testing agencies still have conflicts of interest and competition, so China’s genetic testing industry will definitely not develop.
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