It may happen soon. A patient, perhaps one you have known foryears, who is overweight and does not exercise regularly, showsup in your office with an analysis of his whole genome at multiplesingle-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). His children, who wereconcerned about his health, spent $1,000 to give him the analysisas a holiday gift. The test report states that his genomic profileis consistent with an increased risk of both heart disease anddiabetes, and because the company that performed the analysisstated that the test was "not a clinical service to be usedas the basis . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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Dr. Hunter is a professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and a statistical consultant to the Journal. Dr. Khoury is the director of the National Office of Public Health Genomics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta. Dr. Drazen is the editor-in-chief of the Journal. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Health and Human Services.
An interview with Dr. Muin Khoury, director of the National Office of Public Health Genomics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, can be heard at www.nejm.org.
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