Columbus Dispatch: Genetic Testing Helps Patients be Proactive in Seeking Healthcare

If you could find out your risk of developing certain cancers, would you? 

The OhioHealth Genetic Counseling Program provides a comprehensive and informative risk assessment to help identify if a disease in your family is hereditary and to help you and your physician make choices for your best ongoing care.

The goal of genetic counseling is to help you and your family understand:

• The likelihood that you and/or your family member’s history of cancer is hereditary
• Whether or not genetic testing would be helpful for you and/or your family
• How your family history and/or genetic test results may change your cancer screening and risk reduction options.

In a recent interview with the Columbus Dispatch, Nichole Morman, OhioHealth manager of genetic counseling, said that genetic counseling can help give patients peace of mind or make lifestyle changes in some cases.

“Things like, are there things that I can do that will enable me to not develop this disease? Or that can basically modify my risk or things that I can do to prepare myself for what might come in the future because I have this genetic condition?” said Morman.  

Testing can also help patients and their physician decide about screening for certain diseases - should you start sooner or get tested more frequently, for example.  

To learn more about genetic counseling at OhioHealth, click here.

To read the full story in the Columbus Dispatch, click on their logo below.