Personalized Medicine | What Makes Sanguine’s Research DIfferent

I realize that with this post and my last post we are taking a little detour from my personal story.  I want to cover many topics here that speak to all people – patients with different diseases, support systems, and the average healthy person too.  In my last blog you read about why I am personally motivated to participate in research.  As I said, every time a new research opportunity comes up you need to weigh the pros and cons.  I feel that with Sanguine research, the cost benefit analysis is a completely different ball game and here’s why:

  1. EXPONENTIAL IMPACT

When I participate in other research, it’s one of two things:  either I provide a sample of my blood, an MRI slide, or some other type of physical contribution; or I provide my opinion and response to a certain treatment or social experience with regard to living with MS.  In the former, my contribution to research is utilized for one study and results are only based upon my single contribution and the single contribution of several others.  With the latter form of research, the same rule applies – my opinion is used for one study.  Of course other studies might come out of the results of this one study, but a future researcher does not review my MRI slides because I only released them to the current study, not future ones.

Happy for the opportunity to contribute to MS research!!

When I become a Sanguine donor, my blood gets used AT LEAST SIX TIMES!  So right off the bat, I have directly contributed to several studies.  I can’t even describe how much more fulfilling that feels!

  2. CONVENIENCE

With Sanguine, I don’t have to schedule my work day around the one focus group that still has a spot in it or find time to stop at the hospital for an MRI or blood draw.  A trained Patient Advocate/Phlebotomist comes to me, day or night, Sunday-Thursday, because it’s about ME, the patient.  I mean as a patient, I have a million other things to do just to get through the day with an ounce of energy and sanity left.  Why should I have to fit in an extra errand?  Quite frankly, I can’t even manage fitting in my regular errands.  YES, come to my house!  You want my blood, you want to advance research, well you need ME to do it don’t you?  I absolutely LOVE that Sanguine “gets this.”  The management team at Sanguine understands that they are relying on you and me as patients and therefore need to make this easy and convenient for us.

   3. PERSONALIZED MEDICINE RESEARCH

When I was diagnosed, I had three medications to choose from and no one knew which medication was right for me.  Choosing a treatment was a gamble.  A gamble that involves not only money, but risking your own health.  There are millions of people who are spending year after year, dollar after dollar, trying different medications to try and find the right one for them.  For me, it took TEN YEARS until I found the right fit and even the right fit is not 100% effective in treating my disease.

Now, let me tell you about what the future holds

In the future, someone will get a diagnosis and their physician will take a blood test.  That person will then be prescribed a medication according to their genetic information or profile.  Now of course it’s a lot more complicated than this and in future posts I will share more details on Personalized Medicine (PM), but for now this is enough to understand.  Prescriptions based on your genetic profile will not only save millions of dollars out of patients pockets, but will save hundreds of years of trial and error!  PM will save the time that is spent today gambling with a person’s health!  Think of yourself…if you have or had an illness, would you want to waste a day if the “perfect drug” was out there but you just didn’t have access to it?  Think of your loved ones.  Would you allow them to risk their health for ONE DAY if you knew you could get the perfect treatment for your spouse, child, or parent? 

Of course all of us want this.  In order to make this day a reality, and in order to bring it as quickly as possible, researchers need thousands upon thousands of samples from patients with each disease in order to study all the genetic information from each of us.  Once they have this genetic information they can start to see correlations (things that are related) between certain groups and types of people, which can then help them develop drugs that better suit that particular group, like women in their 30s with MS who have a specific genetic pattern that can be tested.

Sanguine is the key to unlocking the door to Personalized Medicine, the door to the future.  Sanguine provides our patient samples primarily to researchers who are advancing PM.  I don’t just want a ‘new’ drug.  I don’t just want ‘another’ option.  I want a better drug and the best option.  When I become a Sanguine research participant, I help  us get closer to the reality of PM.

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

 When I first learned about Sanguine’s mission from the CEO Brian Neman, I had the following thought:

            So, wait a minute, you’re telling me, that as a patient, I can advance research by    sitting in my living room on a Sunday afternoon?  And all I have to do is spend half an hour with a phlebotomist (a professional who draws blood) and give you a copy of my health record in order to impact several studies and bring about a new age in medicine that promises personalized treatments?  SIGN ME UP!

Whether you are perfectly healthy or a fellow a patient, you can help Sanguine advance Personalized Medicine.  To learn how to Participate CLICK HERE.

Celebrating life with Sanguine Co-Founder Brian Neman