CHOP VEO-IBD Genetic Panel
For healthcare professionals
The Very Early Onset Inflammatory Bowel Disease (VEO-IBD) Program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is one of the largest clinical and research programs of its kind in the United States, caring for more than 450 children with VEO-IBD. Our program offers expert care from VEO-IBD trained gastroenterologists, immunologists, dietitians, psychologists, social workers, and nurse educators.
We welcome the opportunity to partner with you, in the way that works best for you and your patient. If you are interested in clinical expertise and/or submitting the VEO-IBD Genetic Panel, we are here to support you through this process.
CHOP VEO-IBD genetic panel
CHOP's VEO-IBD genetic panel defines 98 known causative genes for VEO-IBD. It is CLIA approved and can be covered by insurance, with some effort.
If your patient is seen at the CHOP VEO-IBD Program, we will handle the insurance submission process for the genetic panel. Alternatively, if you only wish to submit your patient's genetic panel and the patient will not be seen at our program, we can provide you with a Letter of Medical Necessity to submit to the child's insurance, which often increases the chance of funding approval.
If the patient's insurance does not approve the genetic panel, and your patient enrolls in our research, we can choose to run the sample through our research protocol. This involves no cost to the patient, however, we cannot share the test results unless they are clinically significant.
Process
Second opinions and obtaining the panel
If you are interested in referring a patient for a second opinion and obtaining the CHOP VEO-IBD Genetic Panel, we can see your patient for a comprehensive evaluation and draw blood at the time of the visit for the Genetic Panel. We can then submit the insurance request on behalf on your patient. Call us at 215-590-7423 or email VEOIBDCenter@email.chop.edu for next steps.
Panel submission
If you only want to submit the CHOP VEO-IBD Genetic Panel: Complete and return the Sample Requisition form. You will want to personalize the Letter of Medical Necessity and submit it to the patient’s insurance company. We are happy to walk you through this process, and with your permission, speak with the family to obtain consent for the research lab work. Call us at 215-590-7423 or email VEOIBDCenter@email.chop.edu for next steps.
Current patients
If the patient is currently admitted to the hospital, or you feel the patient is too sick to wait for insurance approval of the CHOP VEO-IBD Genetic Panel: We are always happy to discuss the case with you. We may try to run everything under our research protocol, to expedite the process. If it is run under the research profile as indicated below, there will be no cost to the patient, but we will not be able to share the results unless they are clinically significant.
If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. You can reach our team at 215-590-7423 or VEOIBDCenter@email.chop.edu
Research
All participation in research endeavors at CHOP is voluntary. Research participation is NOT a prerequisite to be evaluated in the VEO-IBD Program. Our research team works collaboratively to identify the underlying genetic and immunologic causes of VEO-IBD, with the goal of personalizing care for each of our patients. This has translated to individualized therapies for many of our patients.
We encourage patients and families to participate in research whenever possible. In the event that a gene is not identified on the CHOP VEO-IBD Genetic Panel, or insurance will not approve it, it will reflex to our research protocol. The team will then look to see if there is a novel gene that has not yet been identified in the literature. This is no cost to the patient, but we cannot share the results unless they are clinically significant. To best interpret a patient’s genetic evaluation, it is very important to also have blood work from both parents, which we may ask you to obtain and send.