In Building Genetic Medicine, Shobita Parthasarathy                  shows how, even in an era of globalization, national context is playing an important                  role in the development and use of genetic technologies. Focusing on the development                  and deployment of genetic testing for breast and ovarian cancer (known as BRCA                  testing) in the United States and Britain, Parthasarathy develops a comparative                  analysis framework in order to investigate how national "toolkits" shape                  both regulations and the architectures of technologies and uses this framework to                  assess the implications of new genetic technologies. Parthasarathy argues that                  differences in the American and British approaches to health care and                  commercialization of research led to the establishment of different BRCA services in                  the two countries. In Britain, the technology was available through the National                  Health Service as an integrated program of counseling and laboratory analysis, and                  was viewed as a potentially cost-effective form of preventive care. In the United                  States, although BRCA testing was initially offered by a number of providers, one                  company eventually became the sole provider of a test available to consumers on                  demand. Parthasarathy draws lessons for the future of genetic medicine from these                  cross-national differences, and discusses the ways in which comparative case studies                  can inform policy-making efforts in science and technology.

Building Genetic Medicine: Breast Cancer, Technology, and the Comparative Politics of Health Care (Inside Technology) PDF

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