title: Public variant databases: liability?
abstract: Public variant databases support the curation, clinical interpretation, and sharing of genomic data, thus reducing harmful errors or delays in diagnosis. As variant databases are increasingly relied on in the clinical context, there is concern that negligent variant interpretation will harm patients and attract liability. This article explores the evolving legal duties of laboratories, public variant databases, and physicians in clinical genomics and recommends a governance framework for databases to promote responsible data sharing.Genet Med advance online publication 15 December 2016.
authors.affiliation: Centre of Genomics and Policy, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5078-8164
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thorogood
authors.affiliation: School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University, and Consortium for Science, Policy &Outcomes, Tempe, Arizona, USA.|FasterCures, a Center of the Milken Institute, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8251-4237
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cook-Deegan
authors.affiliation: Centre of Genomics and Policy, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Bartha Maria
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Knoppers
mesh_terms: D066289:Data Curation / Q000592:standards; D030541:Databases, Genetic / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D030561:Databases, Nucleic Acid / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends; D014644:Genetic Variation; D023281:Genomics / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence