In many places in the world, we are faced with official policies that can be annoying and troubling. In my local public library, there is a policy that when you request a book, you need to present the same library card that was used for the request to pick up the book. A result of this policy is that when I request a book, my wife (who is at the library much more often than I am) cannot do me a favor and pick it up for me. When I inquire about why the library cannot allow people to pick up books for family members, I am informed that it is simply the policy and that policies needs to be followed.
While this library policy is annoying, it does not put my health or life at risk. In the case of some medical policies, people’s health and the lives of their children can be threatened. Many hospitals and medical practices have set procedures and policies that, while intended to provide better outcomes for patients as a whole, do harm to individuals. As an example, a patient (let’s say his name is Steve) has a heart attack, but Steve fortunately survives the heart attack and is recovering with his family. Then, to help prevent another attack, Steve is told he could take Plavix, a drug that inhibits blood clots. But, although he does not know it, Steve is one of the 14% of people who have a different, less-functional version of the gene (CYP2C19) that metabolizes the drug. This means that the drug could suddenly be harmful to him (almost 4X greater risk of stroke), even though it actually helps the other 86% of people. This is a completely avoidable risk to your health that can be quickly examined with a fast, cheap genetic test, and these tools are desperately needed by patients and their doctors.
At Genome Liberty, we are dedicated to providing this easy to order and affordable tool. By being a trusted partner in your personal health, Genome Liberty will be a partner in helping medical professionals and patients change the conversation. We aim to change the paradigm from one of group mentality to one of individual tailored treatment. Indeed, a simple genetic test would have shown that Steve should have been given a different drug.
Regulations meant to help the whole tend to disregard the individual. We at Genome Liberty believe that each person is an individual and that his medical care should be personally tailored. A patient is not just a number and should be treated as an independent minded and intelligent person.
We’ve made genetic testing easy, affordable and delivered to you, already interpreted by a trained geneticist. If you are a doctor, would you recommend this to your patients? If you are a patient, do you feel like this would be a good tool for you to take the doctor with you? In all cases, it is your DNA, and your right to know, and we want to help.
Genome Liberty 