Joe and I had the honor to be the keynote speakers at the Cleveland Clinic Personalized Medicine Health Summit last Monday, May 6th. We shared Noah and Alexis’s story, Joe sharing about his career path while I shared, on the same timeline, Noah and Alexis’s medical journey. It continues to amaze me how God started Joe in the semi-conducter industry, making semi-conductor chips (circuit chips). He then moved him to the airline where Joe performed the largest systems merger to that date (merging the systems of America West and US Airways together). He took two completely different systems and merged them together. He also brought everything in house (while US Airways, at the time, was mostly contracted out). It was because of this background that Invitrogen pursued Joe for a position, merging systems from two large companies together, and having everything in house. We look back and see God’s hand in every detail of our journey with Noah and Alexis. We moved to San Diego for this position for Joe. One year after our move, Alexis started struggling for breath. We almost lost her on several occasions as she struggled to breath, staying alive by inhaling racemic epinephrine through a nebulizer multiple times a day. The very company that recruited Joe would prove to be a source of saving Alexis’s life and giving Noah and Alexis a complete diagnosis, based on evidence through whole genome sequencing. The same company would later come out with a new sequencer using semi conductor technology, placing all the date from the genome on a semi conductor chip. God uses everything and we are in awe of the way He continues to move and open doors in our lives. We are and will be eternally grateful for the journey that He has taken us on (and continues to lead).
The Cleveland Clinic is doing amazing things to bring personalized medicine to be a reality for all of their patients. They have a great model of how they are working with patients and families in a community effort to save lives.