We are pleased to announce a new partnership with medical bio-tech company Intelligene. This collaboration will offer exciting opportunities for genetic testing of Fedhealth members to improve the efficiency of medication, mitigate health risks by identifying possible future illnesses, and even optimise an individual’s lifestyle by pinpointing the nutrition and lifestyle best suited to their genetic make-up.

While most health systems are designed to be reactive – we wait until the onset of disease and then respond – precision medicine is quickly transforming healthcare from a reactive to a much-needed proactive model. Besides finding out our predisposition to certain illnesses, personalised genetic testing can allow people to get a much more detailed picture of their overall health.

With this programme, Fedhealth is one of the first open medical schemes in South Africa to be offering precision medicine-based genetic testing directly to its members.

• As part of the pilot programme, we’ve identified a group of members currently using chronic medication to manage one of five specific conditions, including diabetes and hypertension. We will offer these members free genetic testing to test for drug-to-person interaction to see whether the drug they’re using is doing the best possible job to manage their condition.

• We will also offer gene testing to members with a specific claim history to see if they’re at risk for contracting certain diseases. This testing could reveal, for example, that a person’s body doesn’t process sugar properly, which means they’re at a higher risk of developing diabetes. While they may feel healthy at the moment, knowing this now means that they can make lifestyle changes to ensure that they don’t become diabetic in future.

• Beyond the initial pilot programmes, Fedhealth has negotiated a special rate for those members who voluntarily want to have gene testing performed. Tests start at R1 850 – reduced from the normal price of R5 000 – and members can customise testing for things like illness pre-dispositions or gathering lifestyle data such as optimal nutrition or sports they’re best suited to.

The gene testing itself is painless and requires a simple cheek swab to be taken and sent to the laboratory for testing.

“If our pilot programmes (starting in March 2023) start to deliver results in terms of people receiving better quality care and reducing healthcare costs, we plan to roll gene testing out on a bigger scale so that it becomes an ongoing part of our patients’ treatment programmes,” says Fedhealth Principal Officer Jeremy Yatt.

Fedhealth is excited about the potential for this technology to improve our members’ healthcare and wellbeing, as well as empower medical professionals to make better decisions.