Hospital-wide access to genomic data advanced pediatric rare disease research and clinical outcomes

Boston Children's Hospital has established a genomic sequencing and analysis research initiative to improve clinical care for pediatric rare disease patients. Through the Children's Rare Disease Collaborative (CRDC), the hospital offers CLIA-grade exome and genome sequencing, along with other sequencing types, to patients enrolled in specialized rare disease research studies. The data, consented for broad research use, are harmonized and analyzed with CRDC-supported variant interpretation tools. Since its launch, 66 investigators representing 26 divisions and 45 phenotype-based cohorts have joined the CRDC. These studies enrolled 4653 families, with 35% of analyzed cases having a finding either confirmed or under further investigation. This accessible and harmonized genomics platform also supports additional institutional data collections, research and clinical, and now encompasses 13,800+ patients and their families. This has fostered new research projects and collaborations, increased genetic diagnoses and accelerated innovative research via integration of genomics research with clinical care.