,,Keeping Pace with the Times: The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008

Keeping Pace with the Times: The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008


 

Publication Date: June 2008

Publisher: Massachusetts Medical Society

Author(s): Kathy L. Hudson; M.K. Holohan; Francis S. Collins

Research Area: Health

Keywords: Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act

Type: Other

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

Although safeguarding genetic information from misuse by healthiinsurers and employers is a key prerequisite to more individualized approaches to medicine, many other critical challenges remain. First and foremost, we need to ensure that genetic tests are safe, reliable, and marketed in a clear and truthful manner. There are important gaps in the oversight of genetic tests, and multiple advisory groups have called for regulatory reform to ensure the analytic and clinical validity of genetic tests. Clearly, our country's substantial investment and innovation in genetic science ought to be matched by innovation in regulation.

In New England Journal of Medicine, 358:25, p.2661-2663.