For years, many of us in the genetics community have strongly suggested that consumers think long and hard before ordering recreational genetic test kits for Christmas – or any other occasion. But when the Pentagon sends a stern warning to its military members, even...
I just attended the National Society of Genetic Counselors Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, UT where I met some of the brightest minds in genetics, heard about mind-bending new technologies, and was reminded of the many ways that genetic counseling and testing is...
Beyoncé’s father, Matthew Knowles, recently went public with the announcement that he has breast cancer and carries a mutation in a gene called BRCA2. He joins Angelina Jolie as a celebrity who has shared their private medical and genetic history in order to...
I’m a certified genetic counselor and I’ve witnessed the great benefits that can be realized with genetic testing. Genetic testing can help individuals and their clinicians determine if they are at higher risk to develop the cancer, cardiac disease, or...
When I began seeing patients for cancer genetic counseling and testing back in the mid 1990s, one of the greatest fears our patients expressed was that genetic testing could tank their insurability. Frankly, genetic counselors shared this fear. We were entering...
