WINTER PARK, Fla. – Since August, two AdventHealth locations have been combining AI and genetics to help patients determine early breast cancer risk.
Beginning Aug. 1, AdventHealth launched its “GRACE” program at its Waterford Lakes and Winter Park locations. “GRACE” stands for Genomics Risk Assessment for Cancer & Early Detection.
The program uses a patient’s personal family history plus their own medical history and overlays AI data containing thousands of similar anonymous patient information to determine the patient’s breast cancer risk.
AdventHealth’s Director of Genomics and Personal Health for AdventHealth, Dr. Wes Walker, said the program is embedded in the annual mammogram process.
“This means that we’re going to obtain the most precise and individualized (results) and a risk assessment for them using the latest technology,” Walker said. “We use AI in two ways. The first is looking at the image density, and the second is actually within the algorithm itself to calculate risk assessment. Kind of traditionally we would simply use age, and a couple of other kinds of variables to calculate risk. This uses age, personal history, family history, hormonal history, genetic testing if they had it, and breast density. So it’s much more advanced, it’s more precise and ultimately will lead to better outcomes.”
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After testing, if a patient is determined to be high risk, they’re then recommended additional items for further risk assessment.
“Many times that will entail additional imaging, such an an MRI, they also entail genetic testing,” Walker said. “If they decide to go forward with that, that information from those tests will then kind of feed back into the risk analysis so that on a continual basis, we’re making sure that we understand what their current risk is and then how that affects their future care.”
Walker said depending on whether or not a patient has certain genetic findings, there can be an opportunity where the patient could potentially revert the cancer.
Since the program rolled out back in August, Walker said 20% of patients who came in for a mammogram were identified as high-risk.
But what sets AdventHealth apart from other similar programs is the Nurse Navigator to help walk them through their test results, which adds the human touch to the technological touch.
“When we can help them identify what their specific risks are, we can give them some action items that they can actually take with them and it makes them feel a part of their health care decision making, which is really a wonderful thing to see,” said Nurse Navigator for the “GRACE” program, Ana Armstrong.
Walker said he expects to be able to screen 100,000 women per year once the program is fully rolled out to all 16 centers in AdventHealth’s Central Florida Division in 2025.
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