What is the value of someone’s genome over their life? Is a genome today what it was 10 years ago? How does the adoption of genomic testing compare to other areas in medicine, such as imaging or electronic health records?
Today we take a pretty comprehensive look at genomic testing in practice with Damon Hostin, Head of Market Access, Clinical Solutions at Illumina. Damon brings a rare perspective to this conversation. He’s been in the field since the Celera era, when sequencing was helping define modern genomics, and he’s also worked on the front lines in a large community health system, CommonSpirit Health. At Illumina, he speaks regularly with payers and other stakeholders.
Across oncology, rare disease, reproductive health, and pharmacogenomics, Damon describes a field that has clearly moved into standard of care in key areas—but is still very much in the phase of identifying the “eligible but under-tested.” Adoption is real, but it’s incomplete.
Chapters:
0:00 Genomic medicine arrives
4:51 Genomics, imaging, and the EMR
11:23 Oncology—from diagnostics to decision-making
18:16 Rare disease and reproductive genetics
28:51 The lifetime value of a genome
36:03 Cost, quality, and what a genome is
A central idea running through the podcast is that the genome is no longer a one-time diagnostic. Its value compounds over time as databases grow, variants are reinterpreted, and new therapies emerge.
At the same time, even the basic notion of what a “genome” is, is beginning to shift. With the rise of multi-omic data—transcriptomics, proteomics, methylation—the question is no longer just cost per genome, but what kind of biological insight we’re actually measuring. “A genome isn’t a genome isn’t a genome,” Damon says.
He ends with a line that neatly reframes the entire debate around cost: “When you look at the cost of healthcare . . . the cost of the genomics is almost nothing.”
Genomic medicine is here. We’re now wrestling with how to scale it, how to use it earlier, and how to make it part of the everyday infrastructure of care.
Note: For more discussion and analysis on this topic, check out this upcoming Virtual Roundtable Discussion at GenomeWeb.
