Jeanette McCarthy is a genetic epidemiologist and currently holds adjunct professorships at Duke University and UCSF. She is a leading educator in the field of genomic and precision medicine involved in demystifying genomics for non-technical audiences, including health care providers and patients. In 2014 she helped launch the first consumer-facing magazine in this field, Genome, where she served as editor-in-chief until 2016. She teaches genomic and precision medicine through UCSF and UC Berkeley Extension and online through the Precision Medicine Academy (precisionmedicineacademy.org). 

  

In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Jeanette McCarthy discuss what precision medicine is and what it isn’t, including the history and the uses of precision medicine. Genetic testing and precision medicine can be used for different types of diagnosis throughout the course of someone’s life, from prenatal testing, childhood genetic diseases, cancer, and more. They discuss some of the reasons of why it may not be as widely used as it could be, as well as the latest developments and exciting new findings in the field. 

  

 Key Takeaways:  

• The 2013 Supreme Court ruling that you cannot patent genes has lowered the price and broadened the research with genetic testing. 
• Many physicians don’t have the confidence in their own skills on ordering, interpreting, and communicating the test results. It is a relatively new thing that is not really taught in medical school. 
• New sequencing technology is changing and improving information we can receive from these tests. 

   

"In general, there are modest, but significant, increases in the efficacy of treatment [with targeted cancer treatments]." —  Dr. Jeanette McCarthy 

   

Connect with Dr. Jeanette McCarthy:   

Twitter: @Genomeducation 

Website: PrecisionMedicineAdvisors.com 

Book: Precision Medicine: A Guide to Genomics in Clinical Practice 

Magazine: Genome 

LinkedIn: Jeanette McCarthy 

  

Connect with Therese:  

Website:   www.criticallyspeaking.net 

Twitter: @CritiSpeak  

Email: [email protected] 

  

   

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