Genetic Counseling, Personalized Medicine, and Precision Health

Millions of individuals in the United States will have their exomes and genomes sequenced over the next 5 years as the use of genomic sequencing technologies in clinical care grows and as initiatives in personalized medicine and precision health move forward. As a result, we will see a shift away from the patient population of early adopters who pursued direct-to-consumer (DTC) testing and paid thousands of dollars to get their genomes sequenced and toward a different and more diverse set of test takers. Early data suggest that these individuals will have different motivations for pursuing genomic sequencing and will be less knowledgeable about and less confident of the benefits of genetic testing. To serve this growing population, genetic counselors must understand our future patients as well as the changing landscape of genomic testing, DTC offerings, and population sequencing initiatives.