Washington University School of Medicine Undiagnosed Diseases Network Clinical Site

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The scientific premise of this application is that the individualized translational research process of the Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) is sustainable and that its impact on patients, families, and disease discovery can be further extended by increasing its accessibility to a broader participant population. This application would support the Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) UDN Clinical Site. WUSTL School of Medicine and BJC Healthcare together represent a large academic medical center, hospital, and outpatient clinical system that is fully integrated with world-renowned basic science capabilities and demonstrated expertise in finding diagnoses for patients with undiagnosed diseases. The highly collaborative clinical and biomedical research culture at WUSTL School of Medicine promotes interactions within and across Departments, with institutional genomic, clinical, computational, and model system experts, and with colleagues regionally, nationally, and internationally. These interactions support recruitment, selection, evaluation, diagnosis discovery, and follow up of pediatric and adult patients with undiagnosed diseases through both established networks and individual referrals. Building on this infrastructure, we propose to continue to advance the success of the UDN in diagnosing and managing disease in undiagnosed patients by creating a new system for clinical and genomic review of applications and participant cases, with expanded clinical expertise to solve cases that are not suspected to have genetic underpinnings. Second, we aim to improve equity and access to the UDN for participants from underserved populations. In particular, we will focus our outreach program for underrepresented minority populations and populations with lower socioeconomic status. Third, we will develop and implement a sustainability plan that will shift the cost burden from research support where possible, while maintaining access for participants who are uninsured, under- insured, or otherwise unable to pay. We will work closely with the UDN network and Coordinating Center to study the barriers to achieving these goals and propose strategies to solve them.