What’s holding clinicians back from recommending genetic testing for Parkinson's disease patients?

A precision medicine approach has advanced the development of new cancer therapies and researchers who study neurodegenerative diseases would like to replicate that model. Yet, few neurologists recommend genetic testing to patients with neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Roy Alcalay, a neurologist and associate professor at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and colleagues wanted to discover what’s holding them back. In a recent study published in GIM, the team conducted a survey to identify what barriers exist for movement disorder specialists in the US and Canada. Tune in to this month’s GenePod to find out how knowledge gaps, insurance coverage questions and attitudes toward therapeutic approaches contribute to clinicians’ hesitancy to recommend genetic testing for neurodegenerative disease patients. Related article: 'Genetic testing for Parkinson disease: current practice, knowledge, and attitudes among US and Canadian movement disorders specialists' https://www.nature.com/articles/s41436-019-0684-x