Public Policy Recommendations for Oversight of Molecular Laboratory Tests

Abstract

NC Med J March/April 2007, Volume 68, Number 2 aboratory tests have long been used to help diagnose and classify disease. Increasingly, these assays are used to predict disease in healthy individuals or to predict outcomes in response to a specific therapy (See Table 1). The subspecialty of molecular genetic pathology (MGP) has recently emerged to promote and recognize physician expertise in DNAand RNA-based testing. In fact, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has the nation’s first accredited MGP fellowship training program to graduate a physician who subsequently became board-certified.