"Medicine’s Wild West - Ten New Genetic Tests Enter The Market Each Day" - Carolyn Y. Johnson
There are 75,000 genetic tests available for sale today – a flood of information that could provide major new insights into health or an unwieldy abundance of information that overloads doctors and drives medical spending higher. A new study in the journal Health Affairs reveals an explosion of genetic tests over the past four years, with about ten new ones entering the market each day. Carol R. Horowitz, MD, professor of population health science and policy, medicine and general internal medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, conducted a survey in part because they are concerned about how such decisions by doctors, insurers and companies affect underserved, minority communities. They decided to focus on how primary-care providers might use genetic testing to understand chronic-disease risk. “Slightly more than one in ten had any confidence in interpreting these genetic tests results. Those with more experience of genetic testing, of any kind, did not feel more prepared or more confident,” Dr. Horowitz said.
- Carol R. Horowitz, MD, Professor, Population Health Science and Policy, Medicine, General Internal Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Additional coverage:
The Mercury News