The American College of Preventive Medicine has announced via MarketWatch that it will be producing a new CME program to help physicians understand genetic information in the coming era of personalized medicine.
The funds for this project called “Genetic Risk, Screening, and Intervention”, come from an “unrestricted grant” from Navigenetics. This company, as described in its own press release, has “the goal of improving health outcomes in individuals across the population” as it “educates and empowers customers with knowledge of their genetic predispositions, and then motivates them to act on the information to prevent the onset of disease, achieve earlier diagnosis, appropriately manage disease, or otherwise lessen its impact.” In other words, tell people about the gene mutations they have, teach them about what they mean, and then maybe just maybe they’ll do something about it.
That is, of course, there actually IS anything to do about it. Or we really understand what the genetic mutations really mean or that there really is a thing called “genetic disease” that can be so easily identified in many cases like the ones most commonly discussed like breast cancer.
I’m not saying there’s anything sinister or even misleading about CME being funded by a personalized genetics company. Nor do I have a problem with Navigenetics specifically versus any other company in this field. From their perspective it makes complete sense to fund CME to teach doctors who know virtually nothing about genetics enough to be able to recommend genetic tests offered by companies just like Navigenetics (and others).
But more than that–just ask yourself–who will ACPM consult with when developing the material? Can someone receiving “unrestricted funds” really forget the hand that feeds them?
Not if they want to continue to receive such monies. Not if they want to continue their relationship with one of a handful of successful companies in the burgeoning markets of the personal genome, genetic testing, and personalized medicine.
So all I ask is: consider the source. Consider who’s paying for the materials that are training new and old physicians about what it means to test for genetic disease, to educate patients themselves, and to practice personalized medicine.
Summer Johnson, PhD