Happy Rare Disease Month! With over 10,000 rare diseases, reaching a diagnosis is a long and arduous process for the 300 million people affected by a rare disease worldwide. Advancements in technology, bioinformatics, and improved collaboration hold the promise to end or reduce this diagnostic odyssey; however, valuable diagnostic data still remains siloed and fragmented within healthcare systems. To illuminate the ways in which interoperability can be harnessed to drive diagnosis, DNA Today host Kira Dineen and PhenoTips’ Dr. Orion Buske and Charles Keenan share their insights.

DNA Today’s host Kira Dineen is also one of the hosts of the PhenoTips Speaker Series. This monthly live webinar focuses on relevant genetics topics by featuring discussions with thought leaders and experts in genomic medicine. This episode is the 21st installment of the PhenoTips’ Speaker Series, “Building Integrated Workflows for Rare Disease Diagnosis”. Check out upcoming installments by heading over to PhenoTips.com where you can also stream all the webinars from the last two years. 

Dr. Orion Buske holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, where he specialized in algorithms for genome analysis and rare disease patient matchmaking, leading the technical working group of the Matchmaker Exchange as well as the redevelopment of RareConnect.org. Throughout his career he has also led the technical developments of both PhenomeCentral and PatientKind. In addition to his work building interoperable workflows for genomic medicine as Chief Executive Officer of PhenoTips, Dr. Buske remains an active member of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) where he co-leads the Pedigree Standards stream of the Clinical & Phenotypic Data Capture working group.

PhenoTips’ Interoperability Specialist Charles Keenan is dedicated to building health technology products that easily share information among systems and providers, helping clinicians realize unprecedented health outcomes in our digital world. While working in genomics and ophthalmology, Charles was inspired to pursue a Master's in Health Informatics from the University of Toronto after experiencing first-hand the frustrations caused by healthcare technology for both patients and providers. Charles holds a BSc in Life Sciences and hopes to realize the future of genomics through leveraging new technology that builds communication between systems.

In this panel discussion, Kira Dineen, Dr. Orion Buske, and Charles Keenan address:

How PhenoTips is helping rare disease networks with the adoption of interoperability standards to integrate workflows

The role of interoperable data in improving diagnostic outcomes

The application of structured pedigree and phenotypic data in diagnosis

Recent rare disease projects across the US, UK, and Canada

The PhenoTips Speaker Series is also available now as a podcast, so search “PhenoTips Speaker Series” wherever you are listening to this podcast (Apple, Spotify) to subscribe and stay updated on new episodes. 

Stay tuned for the next new episode of DNA Today on February 17th! New episodes are released every Friday. In the meantime, you can binge over 220 other episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, streaming on the website, or any other podcast player by searching, “DNA Today”. Episodes since 2021 are also recorded with video which you can watch on our YouTube channel.  

DNA Today is hosted and produced by Kira Dineen. Our social media lead is Corinne Merlino. Our video lead is Amanda Andreoli. Our Outreach Intern is Sanya Tinaikar. Our Social Media Intern is Kajal Patel. And our Graphic Designer Ashlyn Enokian.

See what else we are up to on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and our website, DNAToday.com. Questions/inquiries can be sent to info@DNAtoday.com. 

As a listener of DNA Today, you probably heard me talk about NIPT, non-invasive prenatal screening, that looks for extra or missing chromosome conditions during pregnancy. But did you know there is one that can also screen for recessive disorders (like cystic fibrosis) and fetal antigens? BillionToOne offers UNITY Screen, which does all this from one blood draw from a pregnant person. Visit unityscreen.com for more info. And stay tuned for our upcoming episodes with BillionToOne exploring non-invasive prenatal screening for recessive conditions and red blood cell fetal antigens (Sponsored)

If you’ve been listening to DNA Today for a while, you probably know I am also a full time prenatal genetic counselor. Between that job, this podcast, and being a producer/host of other podcasts, I am pretty busy! To keep my energy up and stay productive I drink a decent amount of coffee. The new coffee I’m drinking is from Four Sigmatic. I’m really picky about my coffee, it’s got to be bold, not watery. And I’ve been really happy with Four Sigmatic. Here’s the difference from other coffees, it includes mushrooms, which I know sounds bizarre. I will admit I was hesitant, but you get health benefits and don’t taste it. I like the immune system boost, as I often get sick in the winter months. So we teamed up with Four SIgmatic to get you 30% off using promo code “DNATODAY” redeem it at FourSigmatic.com, again that’s FourSigmatic.com using code “DNATODAY” for 30% off! And let me know if you like it too! (Sponsored)