Is Humanity Really Ready for Genetic Testing Yet?

There’s a lot we still don’t know about the power of genetic testing.

For one thing, it’s becoming more powerful than ever expected. Already, patients can get gene-based information about their cancer risk, for instance, as well as details about genetic disorders that might impact their children, autism diagnoses, and more.

What will all this mean for patients?

How will they be getting that news?

How will they handle it?

According to a recent article in Spectrum, the leading publication focused on advancements in autism research, the “human side” of this technology is already getting attention among doctors and therapists:

“Autism has a large genetic component, and the number of genetic variants implicated in the condition is increasing. People with autism may have their genomes sequenced as part of a study or for diagnostic purposes. And this process may reveal variants known to increase their risk for entirely different conditions.

“This bonus information, or ‘incidental findings,’ may have clinical value if it points to treatments. Such information can even be harmful — say, if it indicates that a person has an untreatable, devastating condition or if an insurance company uses it as a reason to deny coverage.

“As a society, we need to establish guidelines on when clinicians should share incidental findings, whether an individual gets to choose to hear the results, and how best to support those who receive the information.

“In one of the first studies of its kind, we have tapped into 35 people’s reactions to the reveal of their entire genomes. We learned that the best way to boost the benefits, and reduce the harm, of incidental genetic findings is to provide adequate information and support.

“Faster, cheaper DNA sequencing is moving genetic analysis outside the clinic and into people’s homes. A concomitant explosion in tools to interpret genetic data is further democratizing access to genomic information. As a society, we have an obligation to figure out how best to support this process as well.”

Read the story

This is an important conversation to have, because advanced genetic testing will be widespread before we know it.

Are we doing enough to consider the whole patient?

Consider the fact that genetic testing is on track to exceed $10 billion in the next several years. By 2022 there will be nearly 70,000 different genetic tests for more than 10,700 different conditions available on the market. These will be conducted on 16,226 different genes in nearly 500 labs.

Genetic testing isn’t, for the most part, a hands-off process. Many of the conditions being tested for are serious and life threatening, and care must be taken to both walk patients through the process while also delivering the news in a caring, holistic way. These aren’t test results that anyone wants to receive in an impersonal email.

That’s why genetic counseling is one of the fastest-growing fields in healthcare.

Counseling is needed before and/or after testing for the estimated 10 million-plus patients who are being tested around pregnancy planning, cancer diagnosis, heart disease risk, neurological conditions, pediatric conditions, medication management, preventative care and more.

The answer may lie in digital healthcare.

As of 2017, roughly seven million patients receive some level of medical care via telemedicine — which includes digital, online, mobile, video and other healthcare delivery technologies — representing a 20x increase in just the last five years.

GeneMatters is working to bring this technology to the genetic counseling market, offering remote access to on-demand, expert genetic counselors. On top of this, the company also has a SaaS platform that significantly reduces the time it takes for a counselor to complete a session by automating many of the repetitive tasks associated with counseling an individual patient, thereby increasing the number of patients each counselor can advise.

In this way, the company is offering a cost-effective, scalable solution to the critical need for more genetic counseling support.

Demand for genetic testing is growing substantially, and genetic counseling is vital for patients to understand their testing results. GeneMatters is creating a software/telehealth platform to optimize the reach of the genetic counselors we have today to help meet this increasing demand and offer providers a solution to scale their services over time.

Learn more about GeneMatters

Consideration

With 2021 well underway and with public markets still strong, we think it is an important time to highlight some of the key private market, venture investment themes that iSelect fund has identified for the year. We believe technologies transforming the Agriculture, Food and Wellness markets will flourish, with a focus on four areas: technologies that enable better food choices to drive better health outcomes, technologies that drive better, more profitable farm operations, technologies that drive the Consumerization of Healthcare, and biome-based treatment technologies. At iSelect, we invest for impact AND performance. We offer qualified investors access to emerging growth companies through our national venture capital strategy. Our unique structure allows our investors to continue to invest in these companies as they develop.

Timing

Why is now the right time for venture? The answer is that now is not explicitly the right time. Venture is something we need in our economy at all times. Now is not better than any other particular time. The question is, why ever stop? When we look at the challenges we’re facing in food and healthcare the reality is there is someone, somewhere who has an insight about how to build a product that will solve those problems. And if they put the right resources to it, they will succeed. As long as we need new technology to make life better or make our lives more enjoyable, we need venture capital to help fuel those entrepreneurs.

What is iSelect as a product?

iSelect is a very unique product, but when you break it into its parts it’s fairly easy to understand. On the front end we’re a traditional venture capital fund. We have a diligence process. We have an investment process. We have categories of industries where we have focus and real expertise, and we invest in companies in those areas that meet requirements for the fund. On the back end we’re unique in that we don’t raise a large amount of capital at one time and deploy it over the life of our fund. Each deal that we bring onto the fund, our investors have to prove and determine to invest in that deal. We have to constantly prove our diligence standards. It’s accessible, transparent and easy for investors to come in and see our comprehensive process.

What is the ideal iSelect company?

We are looking for founders that are passionate and we want the problem they’re trying to solve to be big, real, and painful. We want the solution to be revolutionary and we want our capital to be able to help them solve that problem. We want to know that they have customers involved and that the solution they’ve come up with actually meets those customers’ and market needs. And we want the team to be capital efficient with the money they’re spending.

What does the ideal iSelect company look like?

We’re looking for a company that has an opportunity to have a 10x return to our investment or greater in a period of three to seven years. What excites us at iSelect are companies that are solving big problems. We want companies that are going to be the Monsantos of the future. Not just in the size and the scope, but the impact they have on people’s lives. We want to create positive impacts on people’s lives, so we invest in areas like agricultural production and areas like producing healthy foods for our kids. They are problems that impact real people’s lives on a daily basis. That’s what we’re trying to do at iSelect. We’re trying to solve the big problems out there. Find ways to bring capital to the entrepreneurs who are the real heroes out there getting up every morning, beating away at these things that are problems that you and me and everyone else faces in their everyday lives.

What is iSelect?

iSelect is a venture capital firm. What that means is we look at hundreds and hundreds of different companies and we apply tough diligence standards to each of them, looking at whether the team has a good plan for growing the business, whether the team is qualified and credible, and more. We do that to resolve the few who provide the best opportunities for investors. And then iSelect takes that smaller set of investments and goes to investors who are interested in venture capital and provides a way for them to invest in these companies, either individually or all at once. We co-invest alongside other venture capitalists. We source transactions through to an exit where the company would become public or get bought. And we manage that whole investment process on behalf of our investors.

Are We Really Ready for Genetic Testing?

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