Differential Acceptance of Genomic Medicine Approaches Between Future and Practicing Physicians

Abstract

To introduce medical students at Boston University School of Medicine to the complexities of genomic testing approaches, students were presented information on the scientific and ethical foundations of genomic medicine and were then asked to apply these principles to a controversial case. Medical student and New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) reader responses to a hypothetical case of an adult seeking genomic testing to explore his personal cancer risk were compared. The responses revealed that future physicians are significantly more inclined than NEJM readers to embrace genomic approaches in response to a case of an asymptomatic patient seeking genomic testing.