Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Smart advice re genetic testing

Today's Newsday includes this fantastic op-ed by Wylie Burke, an ethicist and medical geneticist at the University of Washington, and H. Gilbert Welch, a primary care doc and researcher at Dartmouth. (Full disclosure: I work with Wylie and think the world of her. Read the editorial, and you'll have an inkling of why that is.)

Dr. Welch is also the author of a wonderful book, Should I Be Tested for Cancer? Maybe Not and Here's Why that provides lots more information about the ways in which "predictive" testing and population-level screening can create problems for patients.

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