Disclosing the prospect or discovery of genomic IFs to clinical patients or prospective research subjects is an area fraught with ethical, legal, social, and practical challenges. These challenges are being magnified with the advent of Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) and Chromosomal Microarray Analysis (CMA). The potential for identifying IFs and how this potential should be addressed for GWAS, CMA, and other genomic research and clinical applications is a novel prospect with which researchers, clinicians, research subjects, patients, and policy makers have limited experience.

Primary care physicians have almost no training in genetics, nor in the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of genetic testing, diagnosis and therapy. Further, mere provision of curricular content fails to impact physician behavior. However, programs with elements that are based on established educational and adult learning principles have been shown to effective in affecting behavioral change.

Results from several genome-wide association (GWA) studies have recently emerged showcasing the discovery of specific genetic variations found to be associated with several common, complex diseases. Leveraging these findings and fueled by the rapidly decreasing costs of performing genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) scans, a small number of companies have begun offering tests that aim to calculate an individual's risk for these common diseases using this genome-wide technology, direct-to-consumer (DTC) over the internet.

Obesity rates in the United States have escalated in recent decades and present a growing challenge in public health prevention efforts. Advances in genomics have begun to shed light on the genetic contributions to obesity. At present, it is unknown whether information about one's personal genetic predisposition to obesity will add value to traditional risk communication efforts and increase the likelihood that individuals will engage in health behaviors to reduce obesity risk.

This application seeks to better understand the needs of patients undergoing genomic testing with respect to the understanding of an adaptation to genomic information through genomic counseling. Through an existing partnership between the Ohio State University Medical Center and the Coriell Institute's Personalized Medicine Collaborative, over 5000 participants have been enrolled in two studies aimed at evaluating the utility of personalized medicine.