Boosting innovation in the early detection of hearing loss in children within SUDOE space: Towards a personalized medicine based on genomic diagnostic tools

Closed

Hearing loss (hypoacusis) in children is a public health problem not only because of the negative effects it produces in cognitive, communicative, emotional, academic and social development of children, but also due to its significant cost for Health Systems (>3500€/child). In 2014, more than 264.000 children were born with hearing loss in Southwest Europe. The future of medicine is on personalized treatments and the advancement in Genetic Medicine forms the basis of Personalized Medicine. There is a lack of knowledge in the field of genetic causes of hearing loss and advances in this field could help Health Administrations to improve the life of children affected by this disease. Nowadays, 60% of hearing impairments have a genetic cause. GHELP project wants to improve current early detection of hearing loss health programs by developing and validating an innovative and costs effective diagnosis genetic tool: the GHELP panel composed by the most relevant genes linked to hearing loss. Using Next Generation Secuencing (NGS) Technology we will able to analyse at the same time, with just a blood sample, given genes. This will allow us to know more about the genetic origin of this disease in order to help Public Health Administrations to 1) improve the effectiveness of current programs for the early detection of hearing loss 2) establish personalized treatments for children 3) reduce the costs by eliminating unnecessary tests. In addition, GHELP project wants to be a bridge to expand the current knowledge in this area to other health professionals. We will implement a training programme on NGS technology applied to hearing loss addressed to all interested professionals.

Medium