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A Threat to Genomic Medicine

Isaac S. Kohane, MD, PhD; Daniel R. Masys, MD; Russ B. Altman, MD, PhD

JAMA. 2006;296:212-215.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Genomic medicine is poised to offer a broad array of new genome-scale screening tests. However, these tests may lead to a phenomenon in which multiple abnormal genomic findings are discovered, analogous to the "incidentalomas" that are often discovered in radiological studies. If practitioners pursue these unexpected genomic findings without thought, there may be disastrous consequences. First, physicians will be overwhelmed by the complexity of pursuing unexpected genomic measurements. Second, patients will be subjected to unnecessary follow-up tests, causing additional morbidity. Third, the cost of genomic medicine will increase substantially with little benefit to patients or physicians (but with great financial benefits to the genomic testing industry), thus throwing the overall societal benefit of genome-based medicine into question. In this article, we discuss the basis for these concerns and suggest several steps that can be . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Diagnostic Testing and Incidental Findings

Author Affiliations: Center of Biomedical Informatics and Division of Health Sciences Technology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass (Dr Kohane); Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tenn (Dr Masys); and Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, agCalif (Dr Altman).

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