NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The European Union is making information about genetic testing labs available to individuals who are taking genetic tests, according to the EU-funded EuroGentest project.
“As genetic testing increases across the EU, it is essential that patients and their families have upmost confidence in the laboratories performing tests,” said Jean-Jacques Cassiman, who is a professor at the Center for Human Genetics and a coordinator for EuroGentest.
The project has collated data on the majority of the more than 1,500 labs involved in member and associated EU states, according to EuroGentest. The group has made that data available and free to access via a new version of Orphanet, a public portal for rare disease information.
The search tool lists the tests that labs perform, accreditation status, staff qualifications, and research interests.
Giving patients the ability to search a particular lab on Orphanet “gives confidence in the validity of the results of genetic tests, and means that families are able to make better, more informed decisions,” said Alastair Kent, who is director of the Genetic Interest Group.