PSI and Ethox researchers Dr Tess Johnson, Dr Zeb Jamrozik, and Dr Stephanie Johnson, with University of Melbourne colleague Dr Prashanth Ramachandran, have this week published a paper that highlights ethical questions raised by emerging uses of metagenomics for clinicians, microbiologists, policymakers and ethicists.
Metagenomics is a pathogen-agnostic sequencing method that can be more efficient and informative than traditional microbiological testing to diagnose patients with infections in healthcare settings. The team uses three case studies built on real-world examples to show how certain issues may complicate clinicians’ decisions to use metagenomics for diagnosis, including those related to uncertain or incidental findings or diagnoses of untreatable disease.
Existing microbiological methods such as culture and PCR can, for instance, identify the pathogen likely causing illness, or inform clinicians about its susceptibility to drugs.
Metagenomics has the potential to reshape patient diagnosis in cases where many agents may be causing disease, where culturing would take too long, or where there may be an outbreak of a novel or re-emerging pathogen.
Metagenomics methods are already being used to diagnose respiratory or neurological infections in patients admitted to intensive care units, for determining best treatment for drug-resistant infections and for identifying causes of new or unexpected disease outbreaks.
Read the full story on the Pandemic Sciences Institutewebsite.