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A study that's going on at Geisinger Medical Center could reveal whether the healthcare system is prepared for more widespread genome analysis, Science reports.

As part of its MyCode Community Health Initiative, Geisinger has examined the exomes of 92,400 people and plans to enroll a total 500,000 people in the study. So far, about 85 percent of the patients in the study have told Geisinger that it can contact them through the GenomeFIRST Return of Results program if the analysis reveals variants that put them at risk of disease and, according to Science, about 400 people have been contacted.

This project could show whether returning results and subsequent follow-up testing stresses the system, Science says. It notes that results can have ripple effects beyond the Geisinger community. For instance, Pennsylvania resident Patrice Molesevich learned through the project that she carried a BRCA2 gene mutation and that led her out-of-state nieces to also seek testing, especially as their father died young of cancer.

However, Science notes that only a few population-scale screenings are beneficial and for sequencing to fall into that category, it would have to be economical. While sequencing itself is current priced at about $1,000, there's also the cost of the follow-up tests and additional screenings to consider.