A select group of people will be offered optional genetic testing when donating blood at the Finnish Red Cross this spring.
In cooperation with the Finnish Red Cross, the new genetic testing trial is looking to test subjects on whether they are at risk for heart or cardiovascular diseases. The goal is to find ways to benefit from genetic information in health care and in the prevention of chronic national diseases.
“Traditionally, we have thought of increased risk factors such as smoking, high cholesterol or blood pressure, lifestyle and so on, but now there is this new axis that is genetic risk. If we could add that information to normal heart disease risk evaluations, it would enhance heart disease prevention and treatment," says Olli Kallioniemi, Director of the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM).
Pre-trial research
Donated genetic testing samples given at Finnish Red Cross Blood Service centres will be stored and analysed by the Institute.
For the first pre-trial, the goal is to find 200 suitable volunteers. If everything goes well, the possibility of genetic testing will be made available to other blood donors in the future, perhaps as early as 2015.
According to Kari Aranko, Director, Advanced Therapies and Product Development at the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service, the tests will only be done on consenting volunteers. “Rest assured, these tests will be done by asking permission and following a discussion about what they entail.”
On Thursday Kai Luomo-Aho, who was donating blood at the Finnish Red Cross in Helsinki, was open to the idea of being offered voluntary genetic testing.
“That would just be a good thing. It would make it possible to plan ahead of time if something out of the ordinary were discovered,” says Luomo-Aho.
One of the top preventative measures in health care
The use of genetic testing and genetic information will be one of the biggest preventative measures in health care in the next few years. It's also been the topic of significant discussion among doctors. This genetic testing trial will also be closely examined by an ethics committee. It is already possible to buy genetic tests online and then book an appointment with a doctor to discuss them.
According to Dr Kallioniemi, now is the time to discuss how ready the health care system is to benefit from the information that genetic testing provides.
"It's also a good time to educate and train the medical professionals who will be directly dealing with people who have obtained their genetic information. This will be very important in the next five years," he says.