Prof. Mike Hoy (University of Guelph)

Programm

• Datum: 24.05.2012
  Zeit:17:00-18:30
  Ort: Schackstr. 4/ Raum 307

Managing Genetic Tests, Surveillance, and Preventive Medicine Under a Public Health Insurance System

There is a prospect in the medium to long term future of substantial advancements in the understanding of the relationship between disease and genetics. We consider implications of an increase in information from genetic tests on predispostion to diseases from the perspective of managing health care provision under a public health insurance scheme. In particular, we consider how such information may potentially improve the targeting of medical surveillance to improve the chances of early detection of disease onset or preventive measures to reduce probability of onset. We show that social welfare can be enhanced only if careful attention is paid to coordinate changes in individual use of surveillance measures with genetic test results. The effects on the overall costs of health care are complex and, contrary to some expectations, improved targeting from the use of genetic information will not necessarily reduce overall healthcare costs.