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Seattle Children's, NextGxDx Collaborate on Software to Streamline Pediatric Genetic Testing

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) –Seattle Children's Hospital announced today that it will collaborate with NextGxDx to develop a genetic test utilization management system for pediatric medicine.

The partners will work to combine the hospital's Pediatric Laboratory Utilization Guidance Services (PLUGS) program with NextGxDx's GeneConnect platform. PLUGS helps clinicians decrease costs and errors associated with unnecessary lab testing by providing a network of expert peers to give advice, the hospital said in a statement.

The GeneConnect software draws on NextGxDx's database of genetic tests and CLIA-certified labs to help organizations establish relationships with reference labs, compare testing options, electronically track orders and results, and monitor test utilization.

"The growth in the cost and complexity of genetic testing is overwhelming children's hospitals and their ability to manage genetic test ordering," Michael Astion, medical director in the Department of Laboratories at Seattle Children's Hospital, said in a statement. "NextGxDx's GeneConnect solution and its real-time market analytics and optimized clinical workflow will strongly benefit the PLUGS network of institutions as they develop and improve their genetic test [utilitization management] programs."