Ending the diagnostic odyssey for your patient: The need for precise testing and accurate analysis
Satellite Session: Saturday, June 12 – 12:15-13:00 CEST
Part I: Choosing the right genetic testing strategy, can one size fit all?
With the rapid advance of new genetic analysis technology and increased choice of available genetic tests, choosing the appropriate test for your patient can seem like a daunting task. When should healthcare providers opt for a more targeted approach or is “bigger always better”? In this educational presentation, Juha Koskenvuo, MD-PhD, provides insight on the different types of testing platforms available and what to consider when choosing a genetic test for your patient. Through case examples, the step-by-step process and the related key challenges and potential solutions will be presented.
Presented by: Juha Koskenvuo, MD-PhD, Executive Director of Medical & Lab Director
Satellite Session: Saturday, June 12 – 13:00-13:45 CEST
Part II: How augmented intelligence can help solve variant interpretation in clinical genetic testing
Modern clinical genetic tests utilize next-generation sequencing approaches to comprehensively analyze patients’ genetic variants. Out of these millions of variants, clinically relevant variants that match the patient’s phenotype need to be identified accurately within a rapid timeframe that facilitates clinical action. As manual evaluation is not a feasible option for meeting the speed and volume requirements of clinical genetic testing, more automated solutions are needed. In this session, Jussi Paananen, PhD, will discuss how machine learning (ML) and augmented intelligence (AI) can help geneticists meet these requirements. Both opportunities and limitations are discussed, as well as how a geneticist can interpret and trust results from AI/ML predictors, based on experiences from a high-volume rare disease genetic diagnostics laboratory.
Presented by: Jussi Paananen, PhD, Executive Director of Advanced Diagnostics Technology
Speakers
Juha Koskenvuo
Juha is the Executive Director of Medical & Lab Director at Blueprint Genetics. He is a co-founder of the company as well. Juha is responsible for supervising laboratory production and for designing new diagnostic tests. On a daily basis, he participates in the clinical evaluation of genetic findings and further develops the company's variant classification and interpretation practices in collaboration with a team of geneticists. Juha has an MD-PhD from the University of Turku. In 2006, Juha completed his fellowship program in clinical physiology and nuclear medicine. The following year, he became a docent. From 2007 to 2009, he joined the University of California San Francisco’s Cardiac Stem Cell Translational Development Program as a postdoctoral researcher and later as a research specialist.
Jussi Paananen
Jussi is the Executive Director of ADx Technology at Blueprint Genetics. He is in charge of directing and developing the company's data science, artificial intelligence, and software technology efforts. He has a Master’s Degree in computer science and a PhD in molecular medicine. He has worked as a visiting scholar and research affiliate at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and as an Assistant Professor and manager of the Bioinformatics Center at the University of Eastern Finland. Jussi has an extensive track record of publishing scientific publications, software, and databases in the fields of genetics, bioinformatics, and data science, as well as experience from co-founding two life-science start-ups.