Renown’s Healthy Nevada Project

What is Renown’s Healthy Nevada Project?

The Healthy Nevada Project is a community health research program offering you, at no-cost, the opportunity to learn about your:

• Genetic risks (for certain cancers and a type of heart disease)
• Regional ancestry traits
• Genetic traits
• Liver health (if you meet the study criteria)

This program helps you understand how your DNA impacts your health and aims to help improve access to more personalized health care for you and your family, while supporting new research discoveries for our community.

Your Genetics, Your Story, Our Care.

Renown’s Healthy Nevada Project is partnered with Helix INC, a leading population genomics company who sequences your DNA (known as whole exome sequencing) to help screen for genetic risks. Helix looks at specific locations in your DNA to tell you if you have any identifiable changes, or variants, in your DNA that could put you at increased risk for developing certain hereditary conditions. Specifically, they look at the genes associated with three conditions:

• Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) – increases risk for heart disease
• Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Syndrome (HBOC) – increases risk of certain cancers including breast, ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancers
• Lynch Syndrome (LS) – raises the risk for colon, endometrial and other cancers

These conditions have been selected because they are actionable. That means if you know you have an increased risk based on your DNA, there are steps you and your healthcare providers can take to reduce or address your health risks. The health risks associated with these conditions are part of a spectrum—some variants can cause a higher risk than others.

The results, both positive or negative, will be populated on your Helix account and included to your medical record to assist with your care plan.

If you are found to be positive for an increased risk, a trained medical professional will contact you. Our program offers a one-time no-cost genetic counseling session that is highly recommended that participants use to better understand their particular family history and how that affects their newly found genetic risk.