Ancestry's Catherine Ball on why the genealogy company just gave UpToDate a $1M grant

When it comes to moving into the sphere of healthcare, Ancestry isn't just working to win over patients. The direct-to-consumer genealogy company wants to reach their doctors, too.

During the recent HLTH conference in Las Vegas, Ancestry announced a $1 million grant to Wolters Kluwer, an incumbent provider of the software UpToDate, which offers doctors evidence-based medical information on 11,600 topics across 25 specialties.

About 1.7 million clinicians use the reference guide, officials said. 

The funding will be aimed at allowing UpToDate to independently develop information for healthcare providers to help them interpret and act on the results of genetic testing. It reflects Ancestry's commitment to working with healthcare providers as it moves into the genetic testing space, Chief Scientific Officer Catherine Ball told FierceHealthcare in an interview at the conference.

RELATED: Genealogy company Ancestry launches consumer genetic health testing as a rival to 23andMe