Mandatory genetic screening is a hot button issue in healthcare politics.  Possibly, most Americans would oppose widespread genomic testing.  But universal genetic screening already exists; every state adheres to some degree of newborn testing, by means of the Guthrie card.  Since 1970, babies have had screens for at least two, and as many as 44 inherited diseases in some states, by law.

Genomic screening can take genetic screening much further.  With “Gene Chips” or similar media, it becomes possible to give a newborn a baseline record of health against which future scans could show changes.  Parents have the right to know their child’s genomic profile until 18 years of age, as they do now with Guthrie.  Indicators of later age afflictions, like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Huntington’s could be masked until the child reaches their age of consent.  But the problem of having this information is less one of possession than of having astute physicians who can interpret and apply it for health maintenance and disease prevention.

The age of genomic medicine has begun in the laboratory, and even reached translational clinics, but it has had little impact on general practice medicine where “little science” can fine tune healthcare for individuals.  Once exception to that, however, is the Clinic for Special Children (Strasburg, PA), a primary care facility for the Amish and Old Order Mennonites, where the medicine of tomorrow is in everyday practice today.  Search that name in Google; it’s extraordinary.