The Healthy Nevada Project

The challenge: Rapidly scaling a genomic research initiative with results that can be integrated into clinical care for a large population in Nevada

As part of its ongoing Healthy Nevada Project, the Renown Health Institute for Healthy Innovation (Renown IHI) wanted to engage 40,000 Nevadans in a large scale genomics research initiative that would drive novel discoveries as well as improve clinical care. This meant that, in addition to needing consumer friendly engagement tools, they needed next-generation sequencing technology that could produce clinical-grade data at scale Historically, this would have required coordinating with multiple partners.

About the Healthy Nevada Project

The Healthy Nevada Project is a population health study run by Renown IHI. The goal is to understand factors that determine health outcomes—one of these factors is genetics. They hope to learn about how your genetics impact your personal health trajectory and use this information to help you make better decisions about your health.

Services from Helix

1. Designers, content writers, and genetic expertise to develop the consumer friendly app, Healthy Nevada Traits
2. Provision of easy to use sample collection kits
3. Use of Helix’s CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited lab to generate high-quality coverage of each participants’ entire exome (as well as hundreds of thousands of other regions of interest)
4. Secure storage of genomic data to enable continued use of each sample for research and healthcare purposes
5. Technical support to help Renown IHI quickly sift through their data and generate impactful insights
6. Scientific expertise that streamlines complex research projects and enables rapid manuscript production

About Renown IHI

Renown Institute for Health Innovation (Renown IHI) is a collaboration between Renown Health – a locally governed and locally owned, not-for-profit integrated healthcare network serving Nevada, Lake Tahoe and northeast California; and the Desert Research Institute – a recognized world leader in investigating the effects of natural and human-induced environmental change and advancing technologies aimed at assessing a changing plane

The solution: Combining Renown IHI’s expertise in healthcare and research with Helix’s end-to-end population health solution

Renown IHI worked closely with Helix to utilize its end-to-end Population Health solution. Through Helix’s consumer-facing engagement tools, in-house clinical and scientific expertise, clinical-grade Exome+ assay, and next-generation sequencing lab (one of the world’s largest), Renown IHI and Helix are sequencing 40,000 Nevadans in record time. For each participant, Helix sequenced more than 20,000 genes—far surpassing the amount of data collected in other comparable initiatives—enabling Renown IHI to deliver actionable insights to their patients and be a leading innovator in precision health.

Benefits of working with Helix

1. End-to-end solutions for carrying out large-scale population health studies
2. Participant recruitment is made easier with Helix’s consumer friendly products
3. Equipped with a high-throughput lab system
4. In-house expertise to enable rapid and accurate return of results at scale

The results: In less than one year, Renown IHI has assembled one of the largest genomic and health data sets in the world and changed the standard of care in their community