Category:

Research on the Behavioral Impact of Polygenic Risk Scores: The Train Has Already Left the Station!

a Polygenic Risk Scores with a train leaving the station

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the new generation of polygenic risk scores (information about a person’s disease risk based on many dozens, hundreds, thousands, or even millions of common DNA variants in their genome), and whether these new-and-improved genetic risk scores are going to turn out to be useful for disease Read More >

Posted on by Saskia Sanderson, Guest Blogger, University College London Institute of Health Informatics, London, United Kingdom and Muin J. Khoury, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GeorgiaTags

Preventive medicine can be more precise and precision medicine can be more preventive!

a person being magnified in a crowd with a magnifying glass and a doctor holding a stethoscope on the crowd with DNA

In a recent JAMA viewpoint, Psaty and coauthors compare precision medicine and preventive medicine as two distinct models in medicine and public health. They use the example of hemophilia B to illustrate how new gene therapy can successfully target treatment with high specific-activity factor IX variant. They contrast this model of precision medicine with the Read More >

Posted on by Muin J Khoury, Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention1 Comment

Happy Thanksgiving 2018: Protect your family’s health by using My Family Health Portrait to collect and share your family health history

a multigenerational familly eating a thanksgiving meal and a picture of DNA is hanging on the wall

Happy Thanksgiving Day! It is time to send our yearly message on the importance of family health history to your own health. Every year we emphasize a slightly different version of this message. In 2017, we highlighted the simple fact that even in the age of genomics and precision medicine, family health history remains as Read More >

Posted on by Muin J Khoury, Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and PreventionTags

Precision Public Health: What Is It?

Precision Public Health with a figure looking through a magnifying glass at a globe surrounded by DNA

In the past two years the term “precision public health” has been increasingly used in the scientific literature and at professional meetings. A quick PubMed search of the term shows 28 papers (as of April 30, 2018) dating back to our 2016 paper, “Precision Public Health for the Era of Precision Medicine.” The papers cover Read More >

Posted on by Muin J Khoury, Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention1 CommentTags

Genomics and Population Health Action: The Collaboration Continues!

an image of the GPHA Roundtable members from the 2017 meeting

In March 2018, I attended the third annual meeting of leaders of the Genomics and Population Health Action Collaborative (GPHAC). GPHAC was formed late in 2015 under the auspices of the National Academy of Medicine’s Roundtable on Genomics and Precision Health to foster collaboration of more than 50 diverse stakeholders, including state public health programs, Read More >

Posted on by Muin J Khoury, Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and PreventionTags

Happy Thanksgiving 2017: Take time to collect, share, and act on your family health history, it may save your life!

Happy Thanksgiving 2017 with an image of DNA and pumpkins and leaves

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that we have an almost identical message around each Thanksgiving Day. Collect, share, and act on your family health history! It seems every year we emphasize a slightly different version of this message. In 2016, we highlighted the emergence of new tools that can help consumers and Read More >

Posted on by Muin J Khoury, Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Integrating Genomics into Public Health Surveillance: Ushering in a New Era of Precision Public Health

a crowd of people standing on sequincing and DNA and data graphs

Public health surveillance has been defined as “the ongoing systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, closely integrated with the dissemination of these data to the public health practitioners, clinicians, and policy makers responsible for preventing and controlling disease and injury.” Surveillance provides an essential scientific foundation for both clinical and public health practice. In Read More >

Posted on by Muin J Khoury, Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and PreventionTags

Whole Genome Sequencing for All? The Quest for Evidence Continues

a clinician holdig a stethoscope with DNA on the side

In 1999, Dr. Francis Collins predicted what the practice of genomic medicine in primary care may look like in 2010. He used a hypothetical patient named John, a 23-year-old man with high serum cholesterol. Based on his father’s history of early onset heart disease, John underwent a battery of genetic tests. He was found to Read More >

Posted on by Muin J Khoury, Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention3 CommentsTags

Are there any shortcuts on the translation highway to genomic medicine?

a long curved road with a curve caution sign and the road is paved with ATCG

Note to our readers: A modified version of this blog post has been published in JAMA. Rapid advances in genomics have led to a new era of precision medicine, resulting in a dramatic increase in the number of genomic tests available for research and clinical practice. As of April 18, 2017, the Genetic Testing Registry, Read More >

Posted on by Muin J Khoury, Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention1 Comment

Direct to Consumer Genetic Testing: Think Before You Spit, 2017 Edition!

test tubes and DNA

As people have become more proactive in managing their health, personal genomic direct to consumer (DTC) testing has become more popular over the past decade. These tests allow consumers to access information about genetic predispositions and response to chemicals and medications without the involvement of healthcare providers.  With the expanding landscape of such testing, the Read More >

Posted on by Muin J Khoury, Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention14 CommentsTags ,