Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has joined a national consortium of pediatric hospitals that will employ its personalized cancer treatment for children.

The East Hollywood-based leader in personalized medicine for children announced June 18 it had joined six other children’s hospitals in a newly formed Sanford Children’s Genomic Medicine Consortium.

The consortium aims to integrate genetics and genomics into primary and specialty pediatric care, beginning with OncoKids – the first genetic panel for identifying the cancers that afflict children.

OncoKids, a diagnostic developed by Children’s Hospital L.A. with Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. of Massachusetts, detects the precise genetic alterations for pediatric cancers and then guides doctors on a best course of treatment.

Sanford Health, a non-profit based in South Dakota, has contributed $500,000 in seed funding for consortium projects over the next year. The Center for Personalized Medicine at Children’s Hospital L.A. will be offering its OncoKids testing for pediatric cancer cases within consortium member hospitals.

The Sanford Children’s Genomic Medicine Consortium includes Children’s Hospital L.A.; Sanford Children’s in the Dakotas; Children’s Minnesota; Children’s Hospital Colorado; Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego; Banner Children’s in Tucson, AZ; and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami.

Health business reporter Dana Bartholomew can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @_DanaBart.