This is part 2 of a series dedicated to discussing topics related to the steps to be taken or considered after you have sequenced your genome. Looking at your insurability and the potential legal consequences are the topic of this post.

You have the genome sequence results in your hands. You now have access to your biological code of life, the DNA code, and its current clinical interpretation. What happens next depends on why you sequenced your DNA in the first place. If it is a test to collect medical information about yourself, and if we assume that you are doing it primarily to benefit yourself, then the ultimate purpose of DNA testing for health predispositions or disease diagnosis is to persuade you to change your behaviour!

Are you a doctor who wants to adopt genomic medicine now?

Are you a doctor who has already introduced the use of DNA sequencing in your practice to assist your patients in their medical care, and want to make sure that the technology is used safely for the benefit of all patients?

Or are you a doctor who simply encounters DNA sequencing test results, and wonders about the validity of the results or the safe practice use of such results?

The following are the three most basic, but critical, steps to help you ensure safe practices, protect your patient from the harm of any test misuse, and at the same time, protect yourself and your practice from liability.

One major question one could (or should?), be asking themselves is, “what are the odds that if I sequence my genome I will find a health risk result?” Or in other words, a result that shows that a person harbours a pathogenic variant that is indicative of disease development. This is still a huge source of contention, and science is continuously pouring in to determine what mutations can truly be associated with disease, as well as how frequently such incidental findings about a threat to your health actually do occur in a population. As more humans have their genomes sequenced, some repetitive patterns begin to emerge.

The complex traits you inherit exist due to a confluence of many different genes and other areas of your genome, dozens, or even hundreds, of different tiny or big variations dispersed throughout people's genomes. To give you some familiar examples, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and obesity fall into this category. Another famous one is diabetes. As well as many cancers. The underlying genomic architecture behind these problems is so convoluted, that how these genome variations come together to produce the final outcome is just a mystery. So they have not entered the stage of clinical action, but as time goes by, it is expected that one day they will. Which is exciting because a sequenced genome is a genome that keeps on giving!

Imagine attending a conference dedicated around the sequencing of your own genome! A conference where every participant has had their genome sequenced, has had their results delivered, and as a part of the conference, for the first time will view their genome on an online app. And you get educated by the biggest names in the industry.

The day had arrived when I was going to see my doctor to receive my own genome sequence data and interpretation. I won't deny that I felt little bit nervous! I thought today could be a day in which I find out that I have an incurable disease, or a predisposition to cancer. Am I ready to face such truths? I have grappled with that question before, and it took me a very long time to decide what kind of information I wanted to receive from my genome sequence. Do I want to find out about having mutations predisposing me to diseases for which there are no cures? Like Huntington disease, or Parkinson's? In the end I decided yes. And there were good arguments for it.

Everyone agrees on the importance of research to make medical progress. How this actually occurs is poorly understood in the general public, but it is assumed that once a treatment enters a clinical practice, it has been well researched. One of the areas of mystery is the role that research on animals plays in the progress of both human and animal medicine. But rather than getting into a debate on the ethics of animal research for human welfare, I wanted to point out a curious example in how agricultural research can also benefit human health.

Do you ever wonder what paramount events might be taking place behind the scenes that will shape your life and yet you never even know about it? One such event took place in Vancouver city not that long ago.