Associate Professor of Law / Faculty Fellow, LSI
In a paper titled Decoupling knowledge and expertise in personalized medicine who will fill the gap? Bowman et al., discuss the issues emanating from the field of direct-to-consumer testing (DTC) — where consumers have access to health tests and results without a physician order. In certain states, like Arizona, any test may be directly obtained by a consumer as long as it is provided by a certified lab. The article explores the potential benefits and pitfalls of DTC generally: in terms of patient autonomy, empowerment and responsibility, the opportunity is extraordinary. On the other hand, consumer understanding, interpretation and reliability of the available DTC tests is a big issue — just take a look at Theranos‘ fall from grace. As such services become more and more widespread, ensuring the ultimate outcome is better health, is key.