Posted By: Jillian Galloway, MS, Science Policy Analyst at ASHG
The ASHG Social Issues Committee (SIC) is taking the lead on an important issue affecting genetics and genomics researchers, namely the duty to recontact research participants. At ASHG 2017 in Orlando, the Board of Directors asked the SIC to draft a Society statement offering greater guidance on this topic.
Over the past few years, advances in next-generation sequencing technologies and the volume of genomic information produced have raised thought-provoking questions regarding the ethical, operational, and regulatory considerations of recontacting research participants about new genomic information that is clinically significant (such as a new interpretation of the pathogenicity of a variant harbored by participants). For individual researchers and their associated institutions, questions of whom, when, and how to recontact are daunting. What’s more, for many, the preliminary question of whether researchers have an ethical duty and/or professional obligation to recontact participants is not easily answered.
To involve the ASHG community early in planning the scope and key points of the statement, Yvonne Bombard (SIC chair) and Howard Levy (SIC member) presented this topic at a CoLab session during the Annual Meeting. They described how new IT advances make greater data sharing possible and could facilitate the dissemination of information from researcher to participant. They also outlined emerging questions when considering the duty to recontact, such as 1) What kind of information is relevant and useful for participants? and 2) How does one appropriately and responsibly inform participants and use technology to facilitate contacting and recontacting?
CoLab attendees provided many insightful comments useful for informing the ASHG statement. For example, they noted that research is not an open-ended commitment: funding ends and teams disband, raising questions about researchers’ duty to contact participants with new or updated information after the study ends. Attendees also discussed operational difficulties in recontacting participants or revisiting results. Furthermore, questions were raised about the appropriate method for contacting participants. Such comments highlighted the complexities of the issues and the challenges faced by researchers today.
As the SIC begins drafting the Society statement on this issue, we welcome you to submit your thoughts on the topic to policy@ashg.org. All comments submitted will be shared with the SIC.
Jillian E. Galloway, MS, is a Science Policy Analyst at ASHG. Learn more about ASHG’s activities in Policy & Advocacy.