“I think a broad-spread application of personalized genetic testing would create havoc and would likely lead to more harm than good…It will make people anxious, and it would probably push doctors to more aggressive interventions simply because of lack of information and a feeling they had to do something.”
- H. Gilbert Welch in the LA Times
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I work as an Assistant Professor in the Duke University Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (although this site and its content are my own).
In 2007 I became the fourth subject in Harvard geneticist George Church's Personal Genome Project. As the PGP moves forward, I am chronicling the dawn of personal genomics, that is, people obtaining their genomic information for whatever reason(s) and figuring out what to do with it. I am interested in the relevant technologies and especially the attendant privacy and other ethical/legal/social issues.
This blog may also discuss some of my non-genome interests or, to paraphrase Dwight Yoakam, "Guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music, etc etc."
The header image comes from the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange's multimedia performance piece, "Ferocious Beauty: Genome."
April 15th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Muin stole my spot!!! It left no room for my Kif6 comments….
Oh Well……..
-Steve
www.thegenesherpa.blogspot.com
April 15th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Your post led me to read the LA Times story. The quote you cite is actually from H. Gilbert Welch, professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, “a long-time critic of of what he sees as an epidemic of over-diagnosis in the U.S. healthcare system…”
April 16th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Oops–thanks Kendall!!