After watching the interview with Immaculata De Vivo and Peter Kraft on population genetics, a year from now, I think I will remember their perspectives on pseudo diagnostics tests like 23andMe. As these types of direct to consumer genetic tests have been widely available and used by the public (even me!), I am fascinated by De Vivo and Kraft’s opinions that they are unnecessary. Kraft mentioned 23andMe’s controversial presence in the news when reporting risk score for Type II Diabetes and other diseases. I am curious to learn more about how 23andMe tests affect the balance between improving wellness (like exercising, eating healthy foods, etc.) and taking medical action for potential diseases one is at risk for.
Additionally, I think an important overall point that De Vivo and Kraft explain that will affect society’s future is the importance of complete data. For example, De Vivo mentioned her work on endometrial cancer with the Nurses’ Health Study that provides her with updated data every two years from numerous women. Both De Vivo and Kraft emphasize that there are many factors that contribute to someone developing a disease including one’s genetics but also environmental and lifestyle factors. Having comprehensive and accurate data is important when creating models and assessing one’s risk for a certain disease. We must keep these ideas in mind especially when designing new studies.
Hi Allison! This was a super interesting post and that video sounds really interesting as well. I think your point about the importance of complete data is very important, and super pertinent to all aspects of life today, not just health. It's very important to have the complete picture of what exactly we're working with, whether it's a disease, or some other type of problem, in order to best be able to make predictions about it/tackle it.