NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Seqster, a San Diego-based startup that makes a consumer-centric personal health records platform, is partnering with the San Diego Blood Bank to allow users to manage their health data via the blood bank's donor web portal, the two entities announced today.
The San Diego Blood Bank is part of a consortium that is participating in the Precision Medicine Initiative. It first offered free genome sequencing to 70 donors in 2015 under a collaboration with Illumina.
With this partnership, SDBB donors will be able to aggregate and manage health and genomics data from electronic health records, consumer DNA testing services like 23andMe, fitness trackers, and other wearable devices — assuming hospitals and physician practices offer easy access to their EHRs. Users of the blood bank's RedConnect web portal will be able to share their information with researchers and to move their data into a legal trust to allow their descendants to control personal and family medical histories in the future.
"Many donors already consider blood donation a health event. They track things like cholesterol and blood pressure over the years with our existing wellness portal functionality," San Diego Blood Bank CEO David Welli said in a statement. "Now they can opt to see all of their health data in one place through RedConnect."
Some of the logistics still need to be worked out. The blood bank said it would share eligibility and enrollment details later this year.