Dr. Charis Eng

For the promise of personalized medicine to be realized, the health industry needs more people who can interpret genetic data and make that data meaningful to patients, according to a prominent Cleveland Clinic geneticist.

The ability to tailor treatment to a patients genetic profile plus, the rapidly declining cost of technology to analyze genetic data holds lots of possibilities for improving health, but also brings risks, according to Dr. Charis Eng, chair of Cleveland Clinics Genomic Medicine Institute.

For example, data analyzed incorrectly could be dangerous, while data presented badly could create unjustified fears in patients, Eng told MIT Technology Review.

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The people who are very facile at interpreting [information] to the patient are very few and far between, she said.

Eng spoke with Technology Review about a recent paper in the journal Cell, in which a Stanford University genetics professor for two-and-a-half years tracked a host of his own personalized health data at the molecular level. This article reminds us that the future is now, Eng said.

Eng placed at No. 31 in MedCity News list of the The 50 best Cleveland Clinic doctors. Ever. In 2010, she was elected to the Institutes of Medicine.

Her research has led to the discovery of three genetic mutations that are linked to thyroid cancer.

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Geneticist: We need more people who can explain genetic data to patients

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