Companies seek to leverage disease risk detection technologies to predict and prevent diseases before they appear.
Finnish preventive health company Nightingale Health has announced a strategic partnership with US nonprofit research organization Phenome Health to advance the field of preventative health and disease-risk detection. The partnership aims to address the growth in chronic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, which have reached epidemic proportions in many places around the world.
The partner companies believe that the current healthcare model, which predominantly focuses on treating chronic diseases after they have developed, is both costly and inefficient, with an estimated 80% of healthcare expenditures being directed towards managing conditions that could potentially be prevented. The partnership will focus on collaborative research studies and the development of health and wellness programs designed to incorporate multi-omic data into the practices of healthcare systems, employers, insurers and other entities, paving the way for a more integrated and effective approach to disease prevention.
Founded by genomics pioneer Dr Leroy Hood, Phenome’s goal is to shift the focus of healthcare from treating diseases to maintaining wellness. Hood believes that by integrating diverse data sources and advanced biotechnologies, it is possible to create a comprehensive understanding of the human phenome – the complete set of observable traits and characteristics that are influenced by genetics, environment and behavior. He claims this understanding could enable the prediction and prevention of diseases before they manifest, fundamentally altering the landscape of healthcare.
Nightingale’s health check technology, which can assess the risk of multiple chronic diseases from a single blood sample, is designed to help facilitate early intervention at a population level. The company’s approach has been validated by over 600 peer-reviewed publications and is already in use in some of the world’s leading health initiatives, including the UK Biobank.
Nightingale’s technology is expected to play a role in one of Phenome’s key programs – the Human Phenome Initiative (HPI) – a long-term project aimed at collecting and analyzing data from one million participants over an 11-year period. The initiative seeks to provide actionable health insights to patients, empowering them to make informed decisions about their health and potentially preventing the onset of chronic diseases.
“Nightingale’s technology is the first ‘omics’ technology that has been adopted for routine clinical use and it has started the transformation towards preventative healthcare,” said Hood. “This is why we strongly believe that Nightingale provides one of the key technologies when building the future of healthcare and we are delighted to integrate the technology into our partner ecosystem.”
Phenome Health’s existing collaborations with leading organizations such as the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, which last year announced the formation of the new Center for Phenomic Health, where the two organizations will work together to advance healthspan for all.
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Images courtesy of Phenome Health / Nightingale Health
