the u.k. is rolling out a program in which all seriously ill children without a diagnosis will be able to get a full genetic work-up for themselves and their parents, for free. the blood test, called whole-genome sequencing, yields a human genome project’s worth of information about an individual person.
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for the non-scientist, it’s hard to imagine how there could be a “worse” side to more comprehensive, accurate medical testing. but the question of whether knowing all of a patient’s genetic information might be a bit of medical tmi is actually very controversial in the health-care world.
but the cost-benefit calculation gets complicated, because while sequencing can cut down on costs of testing, it may increase costs after diagnosis. once a child is identified as having genetic markers that indicate, for instance, autism, they’ll be sent to more specialists and referred for more treatments — though hopefully ones that are personalized.
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