New genetic testing deal could spur major research breakthroughs
genetic testing
Direct to consumer genetic testing in Canada: should we be concerned?
The highest profile direct-to-consumer genetic testing company in the world, 23andMe, has opened shop in Canada. In addition to providing information about your genetic ancestry (turns out I am 100% Irish), 23andMe will, after your genetic information is pulled from the required tube of spit, provide you with a whole bunch of genetic risk information …
Paternalism to patient-centered: do people want to know incidental findings?
A recent article in Healthy Debate highlighted the possibility of uncovering incidental findings as a significant challenge in genomic sequencing. An incidental finding is a genetic condition that causes a disease unrelated to the reason genetic testing was initially ordered. For example, imagine you have been recently diagnosed with a serious disease, such as colon …
Should patients be told about incidental findings from genetic testing?
Genomics is moving at a lightning pace. Whole genome sequencing, a special type of genetic test, can produce much more information about a person’s genes than ever before. However, this rapid advance in technology has outpaced our ability to understand what to do with all of this additional information. As a result, patients and clinicians …
Personalized medicine: behind the hype
When the human genome was mapped in the 90s, everybody from scientists to Silicon Valley CEOs believed it would revolutionize medicine by making it personalized. This carried enormous medical and financial opportunities, as well as ethical and legal challenges. But after decades of research, it has become evident that our genome is not nearly as …
Non-invasive prenatal testing and chromosomal microarray: changing the landscape of prenatal genetic testing
Prenatal testing is a routine part of pregnancy care in much of the world. Every pregnant woman in Canada is offered blood tests and ultrasounds to evaluate the health of her pregnancy. When testing suggests potential genetic abnormalities, doctors offer a further test such as amniocentesis to make a definitive diagnosis. While amniocentesis is very …
Direct-to-consumer genetic testing comes to Canada
Genetic profiles are being offered directly to consumers online for relatively reasonable sums of money. These websites are not yet widely known to Canadian consumers. Doctors and the public need to be educated to better understand what the results of these tests mean. E-commerce has exploded over the past decade, and now you can buy …