Article by Rachel Guibert and Alyson Gonzalez

When staff at St. Elizabeth Healthcare in Kentucky — a Mayo Clinic Care Network member — decided that they wanted to bring precision medicine to their patients, they turned to Mayo Clinic for help.

"We're a community hospital that doesn't have the deep resources academically, and in order for us to bring the science to bedside, we needed Mayo's help," says Barry Wendt, M.D., an internal medicine specialist at St. Elizabeth Healthcare.

At Mayo Clinic, many years of strategy and effort have gone into building the resources and infrastructure to support Mayo's Center for Individualized Medicine and the pharmacogenomics program that exists today.

Through Mayo Clinic Care Network's consulting services, St. Elizabeth could tap into the expertise developed in creating those programs.

Bringing precision medicine to a community hospital

Staff at St. Elizabeth Healthcare were initially interested in precision medicine when they saw a video presented by Mayo Clinic's Eric Matey, Pharm.D., and they decided it would be beneficial to attend a Mayo Clinic Individualizing Medicine Conference. Based on their experience at the conference, St. Elizabeth reached out to learn more about how Mayo Clinic developed its Center for Individualized Medicine and, more specifically, its pharmacogenomics program.

As a member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network, St. Elizabeth Healthcare has access to Mayo Clinic's practical experience and subject matter expertise through Health Care Consulting. The care network was created in 2011 to establish collaborative and meaningful relationships with high-quality organizations whose cultures closely align with that of Mayo Clinic's.

Health Care Consulting is one of many benefits offered, where Mayo Clinic Care Network members can consult with Mayo Clinic experts in patient care, human resources, finance, and other administrative and operational areas. Members customize their own consulting plans to support their strategic priorities.

Through Health Care Consulting, St. Elizabeth was able to learn about the progress and challenges Mayo Clinic has faced in developing its precision medicine program. Staff at Mayo offered advice on the education necessary for providers as well as the processes to streamline genetic and pharmacogenomic testing.

This consultation has allowed St. Elizabeth to learn how precision medicine can best be applied at a community hospital.

"Taking this idea from the concept we had and then seeing it applied at the bedside at Mayo Clinic was very helpful," says Jaime Grund, genetic counselor and director of Precision Medicine at St. Elizabeth Healthcare.

Representatives from St. Elizabeth also attended the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine's Drugs and Genes conference and worked closely with Eric Matey to learn more about Mayo's pharmacogenomics program.

After partnering with ActX — a genetic screening service — and integrating pharmacogenetic decision support into their electronic health record, St. Elizabeth completed their pilot with one physician practice. Since then, they've moved on to the second phase of the initiative, expanding pharmacogenomic orders to three other physician practices.

Today, the work continues, and St. Elizabeth plans to consult with Mayo through the course of their precision medicine program's journey.

"We're looking forward to the potential of our continued collaboration," Matey says. "By working with other organizations and learning what they're looking for, we can improve what we're doing and ensure that the consultation and materials we offer are of value to the organizations we work with."

Value of the care network

The Mayo Clinic Care Network continues to expand Mayo Clinic's reach by enhancing relationships with providers and organizations across the country and around the world.

Now in its eighth year, the Mayo Clinic Care Network has more than 40 members in the U.S., as well as members in Asia, Mexico and the Middle East.

"The Mayo Clinic Care Network is one way for clinically meaningful insights to be extended into communities far from home," says Mark Larson, M.D., medical director of the Midwest region for Mayo Clinic Care Network. "I am proud of the way Mayo Clinic brings expert care and expertise to patients both here and in the communities of our members domestically and abroad."

The latest advances in cancer care

Learn more about pharmacogenomics at the Individualized Medicine 2019 pre-conference sessions on September 20, 2019 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Other key conference themes include:

• CAR-T cell therapy
• Clonality
• Pharmacogenomics
• Lineage Plasticity
• National Cancer Institute match

Stay informed

Want to read more stories like this one?

Register to get weekly updates about new stories on Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine blog.

Join the conversation

For more information on the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, visit our blog, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter at @MayoClinicCIM.

Tags: ActX, Cancer, center for individualized medicine, Dr. Eric Matey, Dr. Mark Larson, education, genetic screening service, Genetic Testing, health care consulting, mayo clinic, Mayo Clinic Care Network, Mayo Clinic Individualizing Medicine Conference, pharmacogenomics, Precision Medicine, St. Elizabeth Heathcare