Medical schools need to prepare doctors for revolutionary advances in genetics
HUMAN diversity did not appear to matter to modern medicine. At the time, the state of medical practice ignored the differences between individuals and between men and women. RAMA SHANKAR SINGH, Professor of Biology, McMaster University This practice was reflected in how doctors were trained. They took courses in basic biology, biochemistry, anatomy and physiology. But genetics, the science of variation, was not a required course until recently. Advances in genetics research have slowly transformed the practice of medicine. There has been a slow accumulation of a long list of diseases caused by variations in a single gene. Since the…