Should Genomic Screening Be Standard of Care? with Adam Buchanan, Geisinger
Submitted by Ayanna Monteverdi on Mon, 06/24/2019 - 23:04Those of us watching every shift in the level of adoption of genomic medicine have our eyes closely glued to Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania.
Adam Buchanan is the Co-Director of Geisinger’s MyCode Genomic Screening and Counseling program, and today we talk to him about the rationale of making genomic screening part of routine medical care.
The MyCode program—which to date includes over 200,000 participants and has returned actionable results to over 1,000 patients—is an "opt-in" program at Geisinger, so it’s not exactly like getting your cholesterol or blood sugar tests which are routine for most of us. But Adam says Geisinger has made it quite “easy” and part of the system.
What exactly is included in the screen, and what genes top the results reports? Are other health systems around the U.S. following Geisinger’s lead? Are there other nations ahead of the U.S. when it comes to genomic screening?
In the middle of the interview, we spend time on population-wide BRCA screening for women 30 and over. Is Adam for it?
At one point, Adam mentions the boom in DTC testing. Is this "self screening", and are health care providers prepared for these patients when they walk in the door?
