Genetic Counselor Reacts to NYT Podcast on Flawed Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT)
I am back from my YouTube hiatus to get my reaction out to yesterdays, The Daily podcast, titled An investigation into flawed prenatal tests. On yesterday's episode Astead Herndon interviewed investigative reporter Sarah Kliff on the topic of a very popular and widely-utilized type of testing available in pregnancy called non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT). There was also an article covering the same topic released a couple of days ago, When They Warn of Rare Disorders, These Prenatal Tests Are Usually Wrong.
I was so excited to see one of my favorite podcasts release an episode directly related to my field of study and practice, but after listening to the podcast I had a lot of thoughts regarding the blame placed on the laboratories that offer the tests and the fact that all responsibility seemed to be removed from the providers ordering the test and our healthcare system in general.
A lot of people do not understand how nuanced ALL genetic testing is and how important it is that patients understand and consent to genetic testing prior to providing a DNA sample. It is imperative that patients have a discussion about how the testing works, what it actually does and doesn't test for, accuracy of testing, what a positive results means, what a negative results means, and what they would do with that information, prior to having testing ordered. But this doesn't always happen and I am glad that The Daily brought this to light, so patients can ask for more and providers can do better.
I used a new editing software and clearly have some audio and video kinks to workout but I was not about to re-record so hang in there for this one.
Here are the links to the podcast and the associated NYT article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/po...
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/01/up...
Link to my video sharing Panorama NIPT results in detail:
• Panorama Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NI...
And the links to my favorite MLM YouTubers who provide some inspiration for my video, though I will never be as sassy as either of them.
/ @savywritesbooks
Manifesting with Mel Robbins...Scientifically? (Okay.)
My new website is up: KatieLeecgc.com
Chapters:
Intro: 0:00-2:13
The commentary: 2:13-56:08