Genes and long-term health outcomes

Researchers in the Vanderbilt Genome-Electronic Records (VGER) project are studying how electronic medical records (EMRs) linked to patient DNA samples can help us understand how genes affect disease. This project will study how genes affect disease outcomes and drug responses over long periods of time. Information about outcomes and drug responses are noted in patients’ EMRs. These records are linked to the patients’ DNA samples in BioVU. This allows the researchers to look for combinations of gene changes that might make patients respond differently to treatments or that affect how a disease may progress. The results of this project may improve patient care by giving doctors better information about how a certain patient’s disease may progress or how they might respond to drugs over a long period of time.