Radio Health Journal
The latest in health, science, technology, and the intersection of medicine and public policy.
Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah’s life took a turn when a routine medical screening became anything but. Despite her professional expertise, she still had to navigate the frightening transition from provider to patient. Owusu-Ansah explains how she’s using her story to show others how to self-advocate when navigating the healthcare system.
Knowing this information before the baby is born can give parents a head start on understanding their child’s condition and finding proper resources.
Our experts explain how to know if you need to see a genetic counselor.
Our experts explain the ethical debate surrounding gene editing in humans. Where do we draw the moral line and have we already crossed it?
The field of genome editing goes all the way back to the 1970s when researchers discovered how to clone DNA. Experts discuss how gene editing technology can fit millions of years of evolution into mere months.
Many patients with rheumatoid arthritis are forced to try numerous, expensive medications until they find one that works. Fortunately, Scipher Medicine’s new blood test offers a precision approach, discovering what medication will work the first time.
It’s illegal for health insurers to use genetic testing to discriminate against policyholders. However, life insurers can and do discriminate on that basis if the test is in your medical file.
The availability of consumer DNA tests and databases has allowed long-hidden family secrets to be revealed, including mistaken paternity and unknown siblings. It has also taken the anonymity away from some cases of sperm donation. Two experts discuss the ethics of overturning this promised secrecy and the impact that the revelation of secrets can have on …
When most of us think of genetic testing for health, we imagine tests to detect whether we’ve inherited genes that predispose us for cancer or other serious disease. But another kind of gene testing—genomic testing of tumor cells for their susceptibility to targeted treatments—is giving thousands of people hope of survival they’ve never had before. Experts …
DNA mutations happen all the time in the body, but the immune system usually detects and deals with them. When the system fails, cancer results. Yet some animals, such as elephants, almost never get cancer, and scientists have learned that the elephant DNA repair system is 20 times more powerful than the human system. Experts explain how they hope to tap …
High blood pressure links to dementia, then osteoporosis genetic screening tests, and finally, is friendship timeless?
An advocate and a genetic counselor discuss the state of pancreatic cancer screening and the few alternatives available.
Subscribe to get the latest from Radio Health Journal directly in your inbox.
