The future of genetics in clinical practice according to Dr. Fragío

Do you know your doctor?

We know that they know you: they know your medical background, previous pathologies, allergies, latest tests results and biopsies… But do you know them?

That’s not an easy thing to do, because the time we spend with them we mostly talk about ourselves and our health problems. That’s why on CMC we want you to know your doctors better, the way they see medicine and the treatments and innovations they promote and support. 

Today we want you to know Dr. Jorge Fragío, rheumatologist at the Hospital General Universitario de Valencia. 

His experience is focused in physiopathology of the rheumatic diseases, attention for precission medicine and immunomediate diseases. 

Talking to him about one of our rheumatic diseases program, he told us that those are conditions that can be prevented with a healthy lifestyle. 

Avoid smoking, improve your physical activity, mental health and a better sleep are habits straightly related to autoimmune diseases and chronic inmflamatory. Those habits might avoid the condition of avoid the severity of the inmflamatory weight. 

From a genetical or inmunological point of view, there’s a lot of evidence about certain treatments for lupus prevention and rheumatoid arthritis. It also helps to prevent psoriasis and psoriasic arthropaties. 

“It is an amazing time to be a rheumatologist” says Dr. Fragío, “because you’re not just only treating patients with high quality standars but also creating some non-covered necessities. For example, strategies, new treatments and tools to be able to cover those necessities”. 

That’s why these needs represent some of the most pressing challenges currently facing rheumatology.

“When you have a deep understanding of these conditions, you need to act as early as possible.”

But how?

If the goal is to improve patients’ quality of life, then the focus should be on the preclinical stages—when the patient still shows no symptoms. And if that’s not possible, it’s important to intervene during the early phases, even when the condition hasn’t been fully classified yet.

After all, these patients were living a normal life before the disease emerged.

Dr. Fragío encourages all healthcare professionals to strengthen preventive strategies in order to avoid musculoskeletal and organ damage.

And today, doctors have access to a powerful new tool that can enhance many aspects of clinical practice.

Can you guess? That’s right—we’re talking about Artificial Intelligence.

“Personally, I’m fully convinced that AI is an ally throughout all stages of patient care,” says Dr. Fragío.

He highlights several areas where rheumatologists are already receiving valuable support from artificial intelligence:

• It helps address clinical questions by identifying at-risk populations through the analysis of large-scale health databases.
• It allows for the analysis of the genome in preclinical patients already under observation, helping to predict the likelihood of disease progression.
• It structures care pathways, guiding decisions on disease management—like a GPS for diagnosis and treatment.
• At the diagnostic level, AI can interpret certain lab tests more effectively and has made extraordinary advances in analyzing imaging studies such as MRIs, CT scans, and even X-rays.

“Many of these tools are still under review by regulatory agencies, but they’re being designed to support diagnosis and prognosis in a semi-automatic—or even fully automatic—way for patients with rheumatic diseases.”

From the very beginning, it was clear that Dr. Fragío is passionate about genetics. During our conversation, he brought up the topic several times, so we had to ask him if he believed it was possible to incorporate genetics into clinical practice.

“Genetics requires courage,” he says. “Most of the time, doctors are dealing with inflammatory conditions where risk variables already exist.”

This allows us to take it to the next level: consulting databases, articles, and scientific literature where those variables are already established, and exploring how to access genetic testing kits within the hospital.

Some of these tools are already validated for patient stratification and are considered highly useful.

“I’d like to tell consulting physicians that genetics is for them too. You just need to reach out and take a piece of the cake.”

Dr. Fragío also encourages all doctors interested in clinical research to incorporate—not only clinical and observational studies with biomarkers—but also genetics-related research. Many ongoing studies now allow for stratifying therapeutic and care pathways based on genetic profiles.

Although it’s still not widely accessible, a bit of effort can go a long way in integrating genetics into both clinical practice and research.

If you’re a rheumatologist—or working in any other specialty—would you be willing to give it a try?

If you’re a doctor or researcher, perhaps Dr. Fragío’s insights have sparked your curiosity to keep exploring and updating your knowledge in rheumatology and other rheumatic diseases.

No worries—we’re here to help.

You have access to two programs featuring official EULAR content, accredited by the Spanish National Health System, and developed with the collaboration of local experts in each area.

Click the button below to discover more.