Summary
1. Article reports on the developing role of genetic testing in medicine 2. Also highlighted is the growing partnership of genetic testing firms with pharmaceutical industry 3. An area of interest is pharmacogenetics. There is individual response (or lack of response) to many drugs; this has implications for prescribing medication and for developing new drugs that take individual response into consideration
Analysis
The goal of genetic testing is to bring personalized medicine and risk
prediction to the management of disease. There have already been
spcific uses of genetic testing for example with breast cancer and
other cancers.
Many organizations are seeking to expand the use of genetic medicine to
other areas such as cardiovascular disease. Transitioning this into
clinical practice is promising but at this time there is still much to
be learned.
The genetic markers need to be evaluated and found to be reproducible
in large populations. The assay methods must be scrutinized, cost
effectiveness determined, and reimbursement from insurance must be in
place. Finally, any new test must show that there is value added
beyond current methods of diagnosis and risk prediction.
