Posted By: Les Biesecker, ASHG President
Today, ASHG issued a new Perspective in The American Journal of Human Genetics (AJHG) entitled, “Advancing Research and Privacy: Achievements, Challenges, and Core Principles”. In the Perspective, the ASHG Executive Committee emphasizes the tremendous value of data sharing to advance genetics and genomics research, and the ongoing and unwavering commitment of members of our field to protecting the privacy of research participants. It also articulates core privacy principles that the Society believes should apply to all human genetics and genomics research.
This Perspective is timely given the current global debate on data privacy and the many countries establishing new broad citizen privacy protections, the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) being a notable example. Within these discussions, it is important to emphasize that genetic privacy in publicly funded research is well-regulated and researchers are careful custodians of research participants’ genetic information. It behooves us, both in the U.S. and in other countries, to monitor proposed policies to ensure they balance important consent and privacy protections with the vital health and medical benefits that can come from genetics and genomics research.
The new Perspective notes that, within the U.S., many genetic privacy laws apply only to federally funded research. Increasingly, researchers in our community—both in academia and industry—recognize the potentially useful role of data generated by entities that are not federally funded to pursue shared health goals. We believe these data should be secured using standards equivalent to those for federally-funded entities.
Thus, to enable these data to be collected ethically and benefit all consumers through future improved health and medicine, ASHG believes the core principles described in the Perspective should apply to all genomic research, irrespective of the funding source. The Society was encouraged by recent efforts by a collective group of private companies to develop core privacy principles, and ASHG is eager to foster further dialogue to advance research data privacy policies that advance the shared values of the research community and adhere to informed consent and privacy best practices.
This is the third in the Perspectives series. We look forward to continuing the dialogue on important policy issues at the Annual Meeting, through AJHG, and other venues.
Leslie G. Biesecker, MD, is 2019 President of ASHG.