Choosing to use genetic testing is an option. Ignorance isn’t.
Last week I posted a response to a column in the Sunday Times by Camilla Long, “Long’s Op-Ed on Personal Genomics Comes Up Short.” Readers of that piece may be interested in a further response (“Choosing to use genetic testing is an option. Ignorance isn’t“), which I wrote with Daniel MacArthur of Genetic Future, published today in the Times.
23andMe to Offer Discounts to Docs, But at What Cost?
Mark Henderson of the Times of London recently sat down to talk with Anne Wojcicki, now the sole remaining co-founder of DTC genomics company 23andMe, to discuss the company’s future plans. As Mark wrote in yesterday’s paper, Wojcicki and 23andMe are undertaking what appears to be a new strategy for the company, encouraging “doctors to take [23andMe’s] tests themselves so they are better placed to help patients who take it and then approach them for advice.” The Times and Wojcicki continue:
We want to help [doctors] to make sense of this, we want them to help consumers,” she said. “If you come in with results that tell you your risk of type 2 diabetes is marginally higher than average, how much do you need to worry about that?
Over at Genetic Future, Daniel MacArthur has the first reaction to this new development. Although MacArthur focuses primarily on the difficulty of using DTC genomic services—even at cut rate prices—to improve genomic literacy among overworked clinicians, a valid point, he also notes in passing that the announcement by Wojcicki and 23andMe represents “a subtle shift in…tone from the ‘we’re not doing medicine’ tone that has long characterised 23andMe’s attitude.” Whatever the business justifications for encouraging medical professionals to familiarize themselves with 23andMe’s services, the “subtle shift in tone” that MacArthur correctly identifies is what I consider to be the truly significant piece of news in Wojcicki and 23andMe’s announcement.
