RT Article
T1 Rectifying or Reinforcing? The (In)Equity Implications of Recontacting Practices in Genomic Medicine
JF The Hastings Center report
VO 54
A1 Mackley, Michael P.
A1 Faghfoury, Hanna
A1 Chad, Lauren
A2 Faghfoury, Hanna
A2 Chad, Lauren
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1914564871
AB The practice of recontact in genomic medicine has the power to help rectify long-standing inequities in genetic testing. However, if not delivered systematically, recontacting practices also have the potential to reinforce these same inequities. Recontact, which occurs when contact between a clinician and patient is reinitiated after a relationship has ended, is often in search of or in response to updated interpretation or results. Currently, recontact is happening in a patient-driven and ad hoc manner, undermining its potential to benefit all patients. In this paper, the authors position justice as an additional argument in favor of systematic recontact and an argument against the predominantly patient-initiated model. They argue that patients from equity-deserving groups should be early beneficiaries of an emerging responsibility to recontact patients. The authors share illustrative clinical vignettes and propose role-specific and systems-level solutions to rightfully position recontact as a tool to promote a more equitable clinical genomics future.
K1 Bioethics
K1 clinical ethics
K1 clinical genetics
K1 Equity
K1 genomic medicine
K1 Justice
K1 recontact
K1 variants of uncertain significance
DO 10.1002/hast.4926