NEWS - Put medical history on the table this Thanksgiving

[Guest guest]

Put medical history on table, officials say

By Laurie Kellman, Associated Press | November 24, 2004

WASHINGTON -- Medical officials are urging families to talk not just

turkey this Thanksgiving but also medical history -- generations of

it -- to help identify breast, heart, and other problems early enough to

prevent them.

" Knowing your family's history can save your life, " Surgeon General

H. Carmona said earlier this month. " Thanksgiving is a perfect

day for talking about family history. . . . You'll be amazed at what you

learn. "

That knowledge, recent genetic studies indicate, often means power to

predict and perhaps head off diseases prevalent in families before they

appear.

To help catalog the information in a form that will save doctors

valuable time, health and genetic specialists announced a free,

Internet-based computer program that compiles information about six

common diseases that often pass through generations including heart

disease, cancer, and diabetes.

The software of " My Family Health Portrait " then prints out a graphic

that can help a doctor assess the risk factors for family members and

begin tests and treatment before any disease is evident, officials said.

Genetic factors contribute to the cause, length, and response to therapy

of almost every type of illness and are influenced by abnormalities in

DNA. So knowing family medical histories can help doctors tell people

the risks of illnesses that run in the family.

While 96 percent of people think knowing such history is important to

their health, only about a third have ever tried to catalog the

information, according to a study for the Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention in August.

The average doctor's visit is 20 minutes, which is too short to

interview a patient, record three generations of medical history, assess

disease risks, and chart courses of action, said geneticist Francis S.

.

" Family history is central to taking advantage of the new genomic

medicine, which is bubbling up all around us, " said , director of

the National Human Genome Research Institute.

Carmona acknowledged that filing family histories carries privacy

concerns. But family medical histories already sit in many patients'

files, he pointed out.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/11/24/put_medical_history_on_tab\

le_officials_say/

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org