Whelp. My #pancreatitis #GeneticTesting 3-gene panel
https://www.labcorp.com/tests/252794/pancreatitis-three-gene-profile-i-prss1-spink1-cftr-i-full-gene-sequencing
is completed and "the results have been faxed to the requesting physician." Weird. Normally I see the results immediately. And annoying, because it's now been five days since I've known that the tests are done, but I still don't have the damn results!
I've called the ordering office and asked for them, but been told that the ordering physician has to disclose the results. Which is weird, because they haven't had to before. So I called and tried to reach that physician today. No dice. I was told by staff that they "didn't know how to interpret these results" and that they'd have the ordering physician call me back. The ordering physician did not, in fact, call me back.
So now I'm going to be scheduling an appointment to talk about the results, because apparently just giving me my own damned data about my own damned body is a bridge too far.
And now I've been reading this paper
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4246502/
And finding that this paragraph hits really fucking close to home for me:
>The greatest issue is that most physicians are not – and *cannot* be – adequately trained to interpret complex genetic data sets during a busy clinical session, especially when complex clinical and environmental factors contribute to variable risk and outcomes. With increasing focus on patient turnover and productivity, there is just not enough time to stay up to date on all of the important genetic factors and nuances of interpretation. However, there must be someone able to evaluate genetic data within the context of a clinical question or problem and to communicate the appropriate information in understandable terms to the healthcare provider and/or patient.
"However, there must be someone."
Spoiler alert, authors: there isn't someone. And there won't be someone so long as healthcare is a business subservient to the profit motive.
