Saturday, February 25, 2012

Family History Works in Cardiac Disease!

Thank God that Muin Khoury is blogging! I would have totally missed this!


When the CDC held a conference to evaluate Family History, they found "insufficient evidence" that this was a useful tool.


At that time I was quite dismayed about this, because I know that I have helped SAVE LIVES by integrating family history in our daily personalized medicine practice.


So I knew in my clinical heart of hearts that soon we would find "sufficient data" to prove that family history should be integrated into every encounter clinically!


Here is some of the first data and evidence that integrating family history helps clarify high risk individuals


Some of this evidence suggests that for every 5000 patients in a practice we would find an extra 200-250 patients at risk for heart disease!


From Dr Berg:


Dr Berg further statesExternal Web Site Icon.: “The complex design and analysis were meticulously planned and rigorously executed… That this study was done at all speaks to the better support for high-quality research in primary care in the United Kingdom; finding support for a study like this would be extraordinarily difficult in the United States … I look forward to further research and quality improvement evaluations documenting clinical results, and I hope that more work in this clinical domain can be done in the United States.“


I am happy that despite massive cuts in the budget Dr Khoury is all over this!


The Sherpa Says: Still much cheaper than 23andMe or Navigenics or any fly by night Direct to Consumer Genetic testing company! 


P.S. I will be hosting a panel at the Consumer Genetics Conference in June. Any ideas on who I should invite????