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Abstract Many people will have had no formal education on health-related genomic testing, so information from media sources may constitute a major influence in shaping ideas and expectations around genomic tests. We undertook a framing analysis of 186 UK news items discussing health-related genomic testing in the context of various recent UK-based initiatives: the 100,000 Genomes Project; Our Future Health; the Generation Study; the Deciphering Developmental Disorders Study; and the NHS Genomic Medicine Service. We found that news items tended to frame genomic tests as the fruit of amazing technological progress. Tests were frequently described as ‘reading’ the genetic code and in the context of newborn screening, diagnosis and prediction were often treated as almost synonymous. Genomics was positioned as standing to give us all a healthier future. A decision to contribute genomic data to a research database was typically framed as virtuous, though some items discussed privacy concerns in depth. A clear diagnosis was achieved in 88% of instances where diagnostic genomic testing of a specific symptomatic person was discussed, with little attention afforded to those who had experienced less impressive outcomes. In summary, UK news items tended to celebrate the very best of genomic testing, but in doing so, they potentially engender an expectation that dramatically beneficial results come as standard. Providers of genomic tests need to be mindful of the backdrop of promotional media discourse when patients are making decisions around testing and ensure that consent conversations help patients anticipate potential limitations and challenges as well as benefits.
Horton et al. (Thu,) studied this question.