Genetics & Medical Apps—Ethics, Privacy, Law, and Policy

This Dissonance series event took a multi-disciplinary look at the issues of ethics and privacy surrounding health policy from a variety of theoretical and applied perspectives.

Each new genetic test or medical app generates or collects more and more detailed health data, but may also raise serious issues for medicine, public health. This event sought to address the questions: under what circumstances should a test be used, and how should it be implemented? Should people be allowed to choose or refuse a test, or should it be mandatory, as newborn screening is in some states? How should the data from these tests be used, and should individuals control access to the results of their tests? If test results are released to third parties, such as employers or insurers, what protections should be in place to protect individuals from unfair treatment based on test results, data collected, or genotype?