01 March, 2005
HEALTH CARE POLICY ISSUES AS A RESULT OF THE GENETIC REVOLUTION: IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH.
Abstract
The genetic revolution has spawned 4 distinct issues of universal importance to health care policy and society: genetic privacy, regulation and standardization of genetic tests, gene patenting, and education.
Adequate policy advancements for these 4 areas are lacking. Stringent controls must be placed on individual health records to prevent their misuse. Genetic testing within the clinical setting should undergo thorough evaluation before it is implemented. Regulations are needed to prevent the monopolization of DNA sequences.
Society and health care professionals must be educated about the scope of genetic testing because current trends indicate that genetic and molecular assessments are destined to become a routine component of health care.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Ruth L. Eudy and Amy O. Longnecker for technical advice regarding this article.
Human Participant Protection
No protocol approval was needed for this study.
Footnotes
Peer Reviewed
Note. Portions of this article were originally submitted to fulfill partial requirements for a course at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, College of Public Health.
Contributors
R.P. Ojha developed the ideas for this article. The ideas were reviewed and further refined by R. Thertulien. Both authors performed the research required and contributed to writing the article. Accepted for publication February 17, 2004.
Raymond Thertulien, M.D., Ph.D., will be a featured speaker at the upcoming Batey Relief Alliance’s international conference, “HIV/AIDS in the Dominican Republic and Haiti: a bilateral challenge.” For more information about BRA’s humanitarian health care intervention and conference, please visit www.bateyrelief.org.
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POLICY, BIOLOGY, AND HEALTH
Rohit P. Ojha, BA and Raymond Thertulien, MD, PhD
Rohit P. Ojha is with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, College of Public Health and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, Little Rock. Raymond Thertulien is with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, Little Rock and the Batey Relief Alliance, Inc, New York, NY, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing health care in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Rohit P. Ojha, 4301 W. Markham, #776, Little Rock, AR 72205 (e-mail: ojharohitp@uams.edu).
March 2005, Vol 95, No. 3 | American Journal of Public Health 385-388
? 2005 American Public Health Association
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2003.026708
