Genes 2 Brains 2 Mind 2 Me

Pointer to Daniel MacArthur’s (Genomes Unzipped) post on the recent political grandstanding in consumer genetics.

This blog is more genomes, brains, social entrepreneurship and health 2.0 – than politics.   Hopefully the political phase will soon pass and some sensible regulations will preserve the right of consumers to access their genomes, while protecting consumers from scammers.

The one thing I hope does not happen is that the regulatory agencies (they work for us right?) “punt” on the issue and turn the whole consumer genetics ball of wax over to medical doctors and the medical insurance complex.  Like many, I am inspired by open-source, open-access, crowd-sourcing, bioinformatic and other open, web-based tools that allow consumers to by-pass the so-called “experts” in news media, finance, health and so many other industries that are being transformed by information technology.   The economic benefits for consumers are well documented, and so,  a country like the U.S. – economically sinking in a healthcare affordability crisis – might benefit (in the longer run) if it nurtured industries that helped consumers freely and openly ascertain their risks for illness without having to go through the economic choke point of an establishment of medical “experts”.

See health 2.0,  Regina Herzlinger’s “Who Killed Health Care?“,  Michael E. Porter and Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg’s “Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results“,  Andy Kessler’s “The End of Medicine: How Silicon Valley (and Naked Mice) Will Reboot Your Doctor”  and Nobel Prize-winning economist Kenneth Arrow’s classic 1963 essay “Uncertainty and the Welfare Economics of Medical Care”  for some more on this.

Update:  The comment stream on Daniel MacArthur’s (Genomes Unzipped) post are chilling.  Many of the responders seem to have experience in the direct-to-consumer genetics business, and they don’t sound as optimistic as my (naive) self.  Part of one comment:

Seriously, you don’t understand. The DTC testing industry is ALREADY DEAD. In the Wall Street Journal, Shuren declared DTC subject to PMA approval, which costs tens of million of dollars! People are quitting the companies by the droves. 23andMe’s former director of regulatory affairs left for NextBio. VCs have refused to re-up. There will be no Series X+1 financing for an industry with no growth potential.