If you work in a hospital setting or a doctor's office, there is a good chance that you could benefit from making use of whole genome sequencing. Although you might use a lot of different methods to treat your patients, you might not have spent much or any time working on genetics. However, there are whole genome sequencing services out there that can help, and working with these services might help you treat your patients in a more effective way for the reasons below and more.
Identifying Inherited Diseases and Disorders
As someone who is involved in the medical industry, you are probably well aware of the fact that genetics can play a big part in the health of your patients. Patients who might take very good care of themselves and who might seem to be perfectly healthy might be more prone to contract certain diseases and disorders simply because they are common in their family. If you can get a better look at someone's genetic makeup, you can get a better idea of what types of diseases and disorders they might be at a higher risk of. Luckily, whole genome sequencing can help with identifying any genetic issues that your patients might be prone to. This can give you a lot more in-depth and accurate information than you might receive simply from talking to your patients about their family members' health history.
Watching for Cancer Progression
If you are involved in the care of cancer patients, then you probably understand that it's very important to keep track of whether or not a patient's cancer seems to be progressing. As you might already know, treating a patient in the early stages of cancer can help you improve the chances of that person getting better. As cancer spreads and progresses, however, it can be much more difficult to treat, and it can have a much worse impact on the patient's body.
With whole genome sequencing, you can watch out for signs of cancer progression. You can even look for certain genetic mutations that can drive cancer progression; basically, you can get an idea of whether or not cancer progression is likely to occur quickly in a patient based on the information that you find from whole genome sequencing. As someone who provides care for cancer patients, you might find that all of this information can be incredibly helpful when monitoring a patient's progress and looking for ways to provide treatment that will work as well as possible for the patient at hand.
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