DNA screening is being offered to patients at a Pennsylvania health care system as part of their primary care, which can identify mutant genes that could lead to conditions ranging from heart disease to cancer, Kaiser Health News said.
The DNA screening done by the Geisinger Health System looks for mutations in at least 77 genes that are connected to a variety of diseases as well as variability in how people respond to pharmaceuticals based on heredity, Kaiser Health reported.
"Understanding the genome warning signals of every patient will be an essential part of wellness planning and health management," Dr. David Feinberg said at a recent conference, according to a statement from Geisinger.
"Geisinger patients will be able to work with their family physician to modify their lifestyle and minimize risks that may be revealed. This forecasting will allow us to provide truly anticipatory health care instead of the responsive sick care that has long been the industry default across the nation," Feinberg continued.
Some physicians question if such information in necessary to provide good health care.
"We're giving more precision to the very important decisions that people need to make," Feinberg told Kaiser Health. "We would have that discussion with patients. 'It looks like we haven’t done your genome. Why don't we do that?'"
Kaiser Health said, for example, by using the Geisinger analysis, clinicians might be able to tell patients that they have a genetic variant associated with Lynch syndrome, which leads to increased risk of colon and other cancers.
"The way we look at it, that's millions of Geisinger family members who no longer have to rely on the law of averages to forecast their health and make plans about their life and how they live it," Feinberg and David Ledbetter, Geisinger executive vice president and chief scientific officer, wrote in a Harvard Business Review article, the Geisinger statement said.
The article, co-authored by Huntington F. Willard, director of Geisinger's National Precision Health Initiative, said precision health care reduces uncertainty and allows patients to take care of their care, the Geisinger statement added.
It may take time to bring other health care systems up to speed. Kaiser Health reported that a survey of nearly 500 primary care providers in the New York City area published by Health Affairs found that only one-third of them had ordered a genetic test, given patients a genetic test result or referred one for genetic counseling in the past year.
The survey stated that only a quarter of the respondents believed that they felt prepared to work with patients who had genetic testing for common diseases or were at high risk for genetic conditions, Kaiser News reported.
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