{"title":"DNA Testing for Preventative Health: Do Outcomes Justify Continued Investment?","authors":"Jim Banks","doi":"10.1109/MPULS.2023.3324240","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In The U.K., a heated debate is raging in the genetics community about a not-so-new technology and its role in public health. Cheap genetic tests to discover our ancestry have become familiar consumer products, and our genes can tell us a lot about our ancestry, so it is an appealing idea that they can tell us about our susceptibility to serious diseases. Polygenic risk scores (PRS)-generated by sequencing multiple parts of a person's DNA-are said by some to hold the key to helping people avoid everything from type 1 diabetes to cardiovascular disease and cancer. This could herald a new era of preventive medicine, and the U.K. is investing heavily, but ultimately, whether or not this a good investment is still being determined.</p>","PeriodicalId":49065,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Pulse","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"IEEE Pulse","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MPULS.2023.3324240","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, BIOMEDICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In The U.K., a heated debate is raging in the genetics community about a not-so-new technology and its role in public health. Cheap genetic tests to discover our ancestry have become familiar consumer products, and our genes can tell us a lot about our ancestry, so it is an appealing idea that they can tell us about our susceptibility to serious diseases. Polygenic risk scores (PRS)-generated by sequencing multiple parts of a person's DNA-are said by some to hold the key to helping people avoid everything from type 1 diabetes to cardiovascular disease and cancer. This could herald a new era of preventive medicine, and the U.K. is investing heavily, but ultimately, whether or not this a good investment is still being determined.
期刊介绍:
IEEE Pulse covers both general and technical articles on current technologies and methods used in biomedical and clinical engineering; societal implications of medical technologies; current news items; book reviews; patent descriptions; and correspondence. Special interest departments, students, law, clinical engineering, ethics, new products, society news, historical features and government.