Mar 18, 2011 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Pathology departments may want to create similar courses to teach medical students how to interpret genetic and genotyping tests
Genetic testing of participating university students was part of a special class that was conducted at the Stanford University School of Medicine last summer. The genetic pathology test was voluntary for the 54 students who participated in the eight-week course that was designed by a student.
The genotyping happened as part of the class, titled “Genetics-210, Genomics and Personalized Medicine.” It was intended to help medical students learn how to interpret genetic tests, and also to help them gain an understanding of ho learning the results of such tests could affect future patients.
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Mar 4, 2011 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Pathologists likely to be surprised to learn that consumers reach objectively to the results of genetic tests
How consumers will react to the results of genetic tests is a subject of constant debate by many health policy wonks. This same debate has its counterpart in the clinical laboratory testing industry, as pathologists and PhDs discuss the pros and cons of allowing consumers to order their own predictive genetic tests and molecular diagnostic assays.
Rapid developments in whole human genome sequencing will soon make it affordable and fast for any consumer to run their entire genome and have the results analyzed and presented to them in a detailed, easy-to-understand manner. In practical terms, it means medical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups will need to be ready to respond to consumer demand for access to these tests.
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Aug 27, 2010 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
GAO Gives Congress a Poor Report on Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Tests Sold by Web-Based Companies
According to the Wall Street Journal, Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests from the four companies 23andMe, Navigenics, deCODE genetics, and Pathway Genomics Corp, are generating results “that are misleading and of little or no practical use.” This was the finding of the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) in its recently released report.
Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers will be interested to know that the GAO sent multiple specimens to these four companies—each of which is organized to sell genetic tests and molecular diagnostics directly to consumers via the Internet. The GAO determined that, even when given identical DNA samples, the tests from these four companies yielded contradictory results.
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