The challenge of precision medicine: ethical, legal & clinical issues in genomic medicine (The Daniel W. Foster, M.D., Visiting Lectureship in Medical Ethics)

Abstract

Genomics is advancing at a tremendous rate, bringing powerful new capabilities but also big challenges to clinical practice and research. With the federal government launching the Precision Medicine Initiative, the time to face those challenges is now. Genomic medicine raises fundamental issues including the role of patient choice, the development of quality standards, the privacy of sequence data, return of results and incidental findings, protection of patient privacy, and responsibilities to share information with the family. This lecture will analyze those challenges and suggest a way forward in biomedical research as well as clinical care.