Genetic Risk Information – A multi-disciplinary challenge (15 - 16 March 2012)

From the perspective of current and future patients, the development of the field of genetic and life-style related risk information is of immense interest. The encouraging vision that is now being established is that we may move from trial-and-error therapies to evidence-based personalised medicine in clinical practice. It should be observed that the term “personalised” does not imply medicine tailored to the needs of each individual but rather an approach whereby populations of patients are stratified into groups of good and bad responders before treatment is started. Several challenges must, however, be managed in order for the visions of personalised medicine and preventive measures taken based on genetic- and life-style based risk information to come true. Above all we need a better grip on the perceptions, communication and management of risk-information to patients, professionals and the general public. The strategy of this workshop is to advance parallel work done by several research groups to a new level by recognising and addressing the complex issues of risk information and communication in a multi-disciplinary setting.


The workshop was initiated by Fellow Prof. Dr. Mats Hansson (University of Uppsala).