Should Bio Banks Return Findings to Individuals?

An article published in Genetics in Medicine describes a consensus approach to development of new responsibilities for biological banks to return results to individuals whose biospecimens were used in genetic and genomic studies.

The results would include incidental findings and individual research results that reveal a risk of disease or findings that could affect reproductive choices, based on the biospecimens, such as blood and tissues.

Article authors contend that biological banks should set rules for the process of recognizing, analyzing and returning “actionable” individual research results. These could include findings that “reveal an established and substantial risk of a serious health condition and are clinically actionable,” according to the article.

Another recommendation calls for offering to return results that are not actionable if they meet other criteria, “including that they reveal an established and substantial risk of likely health or reproductive importance or personal utility to the contributor and return is likely to provide net benefit from the contributor’s perspective.”

The article is available here.