Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

A duty to recontact in genetics: context matters

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 20, pages 371–372 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Rapid advances in genomic technologies and their increasing clinical application are driving the need for a policy on whether to recontact patients to inform them of new genetic discoveries that may have relevance to their health. Importantly, the duty to recontact is context-specific, and professionals should be offered guidance accordingly.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Pyeritz, R. E. The coming explosion in genetic testing — is there a duty to recontact? N. Engl. J. Med. 365, 1367–1369 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Otten, E. et al. Is there a duty to recontact in light of new genetic technologies? A systematic review of the literature. Genet. Med. 17, 668–678 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. David, K. L. et al. Patient re-contact after revision of genomic test results: points to consider — a statement of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG). Genet. Med. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41436-018-0391-z (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Carrieri, D. et al. Recontacting patients in clinical genetics services: recommendations of the European Society of Human Genetics. Eur. J. Hum. Genet. 27, 169–182 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Wouters, R. H. P. et al. Am I my family’s keeper? Disclosure dilemmas in next-generation sequencing. Hum. Mutat. 37, 1257–1262 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Bredenoord, A. L. et al. Disclosure of individual genetic data to research participants: the debate reconsidered. Trends Genet. 27, 41–47 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Wade, C. H. & Kalfoglou, A. L. When do genetic researchers have a duty to recontact study participants? Am. J. Bioeth. 6, 26–27 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Ploem, C. et al. A duty to recontact in the context of genetics: futuristic or realistic? Eur. J. Health Law 25, 537–553 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This paper is written as part of the technology assessment of next-generation sequencing in personalized oncology (TANGO) project, funded by ZonMw, The Hague, Netherlands.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands

    Noor A. A. Giesbertz

  2. Department of Psychosocial Research and Epidemiology, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Wim H. van Harten

  3. Department of Medical Humanities, Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands

    Annelien L. Bredenoord

Authors
  1. Noor A. A. Giesbertz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Wim H. van Harten
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Annelien L. Bredenoord
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

N.A.A.G. researched the literature. All authors contributed to discussions of the content, wrote the article and reviewed and/or edited the manuscript before submission.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Noor A. A. Giesbertz.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Giesbertz, N.A.A., van Harten, W.H. & Bredenoord, A.L. A duty to recontact in genetics: context matters. Nat Rev Genet 20, 371–372 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-019-0121-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-019-0121-7

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing