NEJM Perspective Examines Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act

"Keeping Pace With the Times -- The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008," New England Journal of Medicine: In the NEJM perspective, Kathy Hudson, director of the Johns Hopkins Genetics and Public Policy Center; M.K. Holohan, a senior health policy analyst at NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute; and Francis Collins, director of the institute, discuss the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which was signed into law last month. The authors write that while "safeguarding genetic information from misuse by health insurers and employers is a key prerequisite to more individualized approaches to medicine, many other critical challenges remain." Such challenges include ensuring the safety of genetic tests, creating innovative regulations and expanding the protections of the law to other "areas of our society in which it might be tempting to use -- or misuse -- genetic information," the authors write (Hudson et al., NEJM, 6/19).