Consumers
Personalized Medicine: Putting Your Genes in Context
Our genetic code, our DNA, makes each of us unique. Our genes influence our risk for disease and how we react to disease, how we break down medications, and how we respond to treatments. Personalized medicine, sometimes referred to as genomic medicine, harnesses the information generated from genetic testing to help your doctor provide treatments and medications that are tailored to you. The result is smarter medicine with better outcomes.
From prevention and screening to diagnosis and treatment, genetic tests are used in all areas of medicine including cancer, chromosomal abnormalities, heart disease and infectious disease. Additionally, genetic testing can inform many aspects of reproductive health. Pharmacogenetics, a branch of personalized medicine, uses genetic testing to understand how you will respond to a medication or drug treatment.
DNA Direct works directly with physicians, employers, and health plans to help them integrate personalized medicine tools into the services that they offer patients.
We believe it’s important that you have the right information available to you to make informed healthcare decisions. That’s why we offer you the right resources to take advantage of personalized medicine through a variety of programs. We offer a decision support web portal and access to genetic counselors through our genomic medicine network. We also offer access to personalized medicine decision support through your health plan.
Personalized medicine will become an increasingly important area of healthcare affecting all of us. Take advantage of the information available to you by asking your doctor how genetic testing can better inform your healthcare decision making and improve your outcomes.