CELS publishes educational article on direct-to-consumer genetic testing

Recently, members of CELS wrote an article about direct-to-consumer genetic testing that was published in the BMJ. The article discussed concerns that people buying direct-to-consumer tests might be falsely reassured by ‘negative’ results, and the issue that people who download and look at raw data from direct-to-consumer genetic tests might get worrying false positive results.

Anneke Lucassen did a podcast for Science Weekly discussing ‘the dangers of DIY genetic testing’, and Rachel Horton and Anneke Lucassen did a podcast for BMJ talk medicine together with Jude Hayward (Royal College of GPs joint genomics champion), about how direct-to-consumer tests can over or under-estimate disease risk.

The BMJ article was discussed in the national news, with Anneke Lucassen being quoted by the BBC News website , SkyNews , the Guardian , and the Daily MailOnline. The article was also cited in the recent position statement on direct-to-consumer genomic testin g by the Royal College of GPs and the British Society for Genetic Medicine, and has been the subject of UK Cancer Genetics Group Twitter journal club.

Read a blog post about it on Rachel Horton’s research project website .