Home genetic testing is receiving a lot of publicity, even ranking as TIME Magazine’s #1 new invention of 2008. I’ve written previously that sometimes their results can lead to unnecessary, potentially invasive, testing.

Health Beat’s Niko Karvounis goes one step further, calling the tests “direct-to-consumer medicine at its most profitable.”

One cited example is gene testing for prostate cancer. A “positive” test may lead a young man to receive early PSA screenings, which have not been proven to extend life:

The likelihood that the patient will go for more screenings””just to be safe””combined with the fact that people are paying $400 a pop for a test which vaguely suggests whether they may or may not contract a disease makes DNA tasting a profoundly cost-ineffective health care option.

The whole piece is well worth reading.

topics: genetic, screening