Testing the NHS: the tensions between personalized and collective medicine produced by personal genomics in the UK

This study examines direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTCGT) in the UK using the Social Construction of Technology framework to draw conclusions about how commercial genotyping is being shaped by principal groups involved with the technology. Different tests are available including single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping for ancestry and health information, the latter being the focus of this study. I conducted interviews with DTCGT users, and genetics clinicians who had either been consulted about DTCGT or who were willing to discuss their views. This paper is about one of the study’s three themes, the NHS. DTCGT seemed to provide a point of focus for conflict between personalized and collective medicine in the UK, rather than being its cause. This suggests that DTCGT is more likely to achieve stability by virtue of being superseded by new technologies, rather than by achieving closure.