Bioethics.net

It looks like trouble’s been brewing since my last post on the cancellation of a major stem cell conference at the Vatican. First off, was last week’s post at Vatican Insider where Allesandro Speciale reported that the Pontifical Academy for Life is being paralyzed by a vocal minority on its board that has played a media game to complain about two events the organization held to reach out for a dialogue with research scientists.

Maine was one of the first states to set up a health information exchange — a computer network connecting disparate medical practices, from rural, one-physician outposts to urban mega-hospitals — to help doctors share patient files with the click of a mouse. Fueled by $548 million in federal grants as part of the Obama administration’s health-care overhaul, the exchanges represent a radical change in how patient records are handled and used in treatment.

Dr. Michael Snyder, chairman of the department of genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine, learned firsthand how gene sequencing can change a person’s daily life. Snyder, who is 56, two years ago decided to see what genetics might tell him about his own health. He’s not alone, as the cost of mapping a person’s full genetic profile has been dropping quickly, as WSJ reports, raising questions about how best to use the information. Colleagues sequenced Snyder’s whole genome, which revealed a number of potential health issues.

Given the rapid drop in price of whole genome sequencing — a technology that allows doctors to get information on your entire DNA — one day relatively soon you may get a chance to find out about your risks for different diseases. But do you really want to know?

The note is displayed in an exhibition called “Trail of the Magic Bullet: The Jewish Encounter With Modern Medicine, 1860-1960,” on view at Yeshiva University Museum in Manhattan. The exhibition offers a rare look at a topic few patients ever stop to consider: the emergence of European and American Jews as innovators in medicine, despite their status as outsiders frequently scorned by the medical establishment.