Many healthcare systems in recent weeks have had to shift available resources and in-person care plans to increase capacity for a potential influx of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients.
While some may consider germline genetic testing for assessing hereditary cancer risk a non-essential service during this time, genetic counselors and diagnostics companies maintain that these tests still yield important information that can be provided to patients with at-home sampling and telehealth services that reduce the burden on providers and health systems. If the digital health model can demonstrate its utility in triaging genetic testing to urgent and non-urgent patients during the pandemic, industry observers predict that more services will move toward a telehealth model.
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