The recent United States Government Accountability Office report on direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests was the star attraction of a bruising Congressional hearing into the DTC industry, and sparked widespread headlines about “bogus” results from the genetic testing industry.
The report is prefaced by the statement:
GAO did not conduct a scientific study but instead documented observations that could be made by any consumer.
While it is the GAO’s prerogative to conduct their study as they see fit, we believe that they missed a valuable opportunity to survey the DTC genetic testing industry and systematically evaluate what is and isn’t being done well. In this post, we discuss how the discoveries that the GAO reported were already largely known, and assess the opportunities that the GAO missed to provide genuine insight. What could the data they collected have told us if they had decided to add a little more scientific rigour to their investigation?
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