The Genetic Genealogist

On Sunday, the Syracuse Post-Standard featured a story about personalized genomics and medicine entitled “Future medicine: Patients with genetic codes will seek personalized care from doctors” by Amber Smith.  The article discusses several of the recent advances in the field of genomics, including the many DTC (“direct-to-consumer”) tests available to consumers, and what that will mean for medical care now and in the future.  Smith writes:

“Interest in personal DNA analysis is growing, as the number of genomic retailers multiply. Navigenics is the first to obtain a license in New York state, last December, and other companies are going through the approval process now. A course at Syracuse’s Upstate Medical University prepares doctors for the new medical world, where patients arrive for appointments not just with symptoms and complaints, but with a list of personal genetic variants — and concerns about what it means.”

The Personalized Medicine 101 course (see #pm101 at Twitter) is a course designed to educate medical students about the tools and the challenges involved with personalized medicine and affordable genomic sequencing.  I was a guest-lecturer for the course this year, speaking about “Ancestry & Genealogy: Foundations for Clinical Practice.”  This is a groundbreaking course, one of the first of its kind, and it has the potential to educate 100s of future physicians about this vitally important field.

I was quoted briefly in the article about how I perceive the future of medicine:

“Ten years from now, I imagine the practice of medicine where an individual will always have their own genome. Ideally you would go in to see your doctor with your genome sequenced, and all of that available to the physician for analysis.”

If you’re interested in learning more about genetic genealogy or personalized medicine, you can check out the blog’s archives, or a list of some of my favorite articles.