Helix’s 2022 Highlights

As we close the book on 2022, the Helix team was busier than ever in pursuit of our mission to empower every person to improve their life through DNA. Some key highlights:

1. New health system partners: We were excited to share the news of three new health system partnerships this year. In March, we announced our partnership with Minneapolis-based HealthPartners. That was followed in June with the announcement of our work with Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston. We rounded out the year by announcing WellSpan Health in Central Pennsylvania as the latest health system to lead the way in implementing population scale genomics. These progressive health systems join Renown Health, Mayo Clinic and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in their population precision health efforts with Helix.
2. Surpassing program milestones: The population genomics programs at both the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and HealthPartners have gone from strength to strength – both are now amongst the largest population genomics programs in the US. HealthPartners launched myGenetics system-wide in May, and last month expanded the ways patients can provide samples to include blood. MUSC continues to lead the way on community engagement and was recognized for it’s work tackling health disparities with genomics. Alongside other new partner programs launching in 2023 we expect to continue to drive impact for patients and share best practices from our health system partners.
3. Accelerating genomic innovation: We contributed to genomics research with >10 peer reviewed publications that illustrated the diversity of our work. Some key findings include important new insights into genetic risk for cardiomyopathy, COVID-19 vaccine side effects, and the discovery of a patent-pending method we’ve called Power Window to identify rare and novel variants that have clinical impact. Helix researchers are collaborating with researchers across our partner organizations to continue to accelerate innovation and clinical impact.
4. Amplifying the innovative work of leading health systems: From health equity to precision prescribing, we shared the incredible work of our health system partners across ~30 webinars and conference talks in 2022. You can check out our latest webinar where I chatted with Feby Abraham, PhD, Chief Strategy Officer of Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System and discussed the role of genomics programs in supporting health systems’ population and precision health objectives.
5. Growing our investment in pandemic preparedness: In 2022, we developed the first pan-respiratory viral surveillance program across a multi-site health system network, beginning with HealthPartners and Providence. CDC then partnered to utilize this data for national tracking. This partnership expands the number of respiratory viral variants Helix tracks to over 30 pathogens, allows for a durable source of samples anchored on health systems, and newly combines variant analysis with de-identified clinical data to better understand viral spread for future pandemic preparedness. Because of this work, I was fortunate to be invited to the White House to discuss the enablement of timely, effective decision-making to improve outbreak response and how we can strengthen national pandemic warning systems.
6. Celebrating the Helix team: We were thrilled to see our team recognized for their accomplishments. We were recognized as one of the Top 100 Healthcare Technology companies by the Healthcare Technology Report and won the Genomics Innovation category in the MedTech Breakthrough Awards.

We are thankful for our partners for their insights and to our Helix’ers for their passion and hardwork. We are excited to help enable the future of population genomics and viral surveillance programs. If you’d like to get in touch with our team to learn more about our efforts you can reach us at partners@helix.com.

Happy Holidays!