Kristie McNealy, MD

Iris BioTechnologies is taking an innovative approach to personalized healthcare by combining cutting edge genetic technology along with in depth electronic medical, lifestyle and family histories to help people make more informed medical choices. Later in 2008, Iris plans to launch two products that will work together to make this happen. Their breast cancer chip will analyze at least 100 different genes in breast tumors, while BioWindows will collect, store and analyze detailed medical and social histories via the web. Together, the two will help women make informed breast cancer treatment decisions.

BioWindows will take the genetic data obtained from the Breast Cancer Chip, and combine it with detailed medical and lifestyle information obtained from the BioWindows survey. This information will then be compared with women of similar demographics to predict how an individual woman will respond to a particular course of breast cancer treatment. The results will help women make difficult choices, like whether to have a lumpectomy versus a mastectomy, or choosing longterm adjuvant therapies like tomxifen or aromatase inhibitors. The design of the current chip will allow Iris to add new genes as additional information about breast cancer genetics is uncovered. Over time, additional gene chips will be developed to take in depth looks at the genetic components of other medical problems.

Iris founder and CEO, Simon Chin, encourages people to pledge to fill out their health information in BioWindows while they are healthy and keep it up to date, citing the fact that women under treatment for breast cancer often experience extreme fatigue, pain and other side effects of chemotherapy which make it difficult for them to complete their information in BioWindows after they are diagnosed. The information provided in the survey could stand as a “multi-generational legacy” by allowing women to leave a detailed history which could in turn benefit themselves, their daughters and granddaughters, as well as total strangers.

The BioWindows platform will have its official launch once one million people pledge to take the BioWindows survey. Iris predicts that this will happen some time in May of 2008. The BioWindows system is HIPAA compliant, and Iris BioTechnologies takes every patient’s privacy seriously.

Visit the Iris BioTechnologies website now, and take the BioWindows pledge to save your important medical and life history information for generations to come. I’ve done it, and you can too.

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