23 and Me

23andMe posted a letter to its customers announcing that after two years of work they are now able to  share the wellness implications of their customers DNA directly to its customers. They promis a report by year end. 

The 23andMe database appears to be the biggest in the World and academic institutions are buying into the data for research. Furthermore, the vault of stored samples remains available for further research while the data remains anomonous with the individuals information remaining the property of the individual rather than some other institution or the government.

This becomes a breakthrough for clinical medicine, which heretofore faced a roadblock over confidentiality, the position of nearly all specialty groups and the assumption that the information would be too sensitive for the patient to have access to. Now, the clinician will have access to a patient history containing multiple SPN traits that are of preventive as well as diagnostic value, a great day for translational medicine.