Oral Presentations Abstracts: PHARMACOGENOMICS: ETHICAL ISSUES IN DATA MANAGEMENT

Abstract

View of Volume 66, Special Issue, September 2021

Pharmacogenomics uses a DNA sequence in order to create a “genetic map” that determines which drugs are the most efficient for a specific disease, in a particular patient. The needed information for developing personalized therapies needs, besides genetic data, various non-genetic factors might interfere with some mechanisms of drug action, and they should also be considered. The assumption that the genetic data is more important than any other type of non-genetic medical information may severely alter the reliability of pharmacogenomics. In order to decrease the risk for non-genetic factors to significantly alter the pharmacogenomics-related therapies, patients need to provide detailed information about them. This, however, is often not specifically sought upon by neither the patient (who sees this information as trivial when the physician interacts directly with her/his genes), nor the physician (who is often a genetics/ pharmacogenetics expert, who tends to see the genetic information as supreme).

One of the main targets in data management is privacy. A lot of effort is needed to keep the data anonymous and creating a detailed informed consent to determine the patient to acknowledge the risks and the benefits of pharmacogenomics. However, proper management of data also includes obtaining all the relevant information to maximize beneficence, this being especially important in frontier techniques, such as pharmacogenomics.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the main ethical issues in data management in pharmacogenomics, with an emphasis on the way the physician-patient relationship should be developed to maximize relevant data extraction and optimize its management.