Inside STAT: Consumer genetic testing: What do you get for your money?

(ALEX HOGAN/STAT)

The latest installment in our video series, “The Facts, STAT!,” tackles the lucrative world of consumer genetic testing and what people can really expect to get for their money. The cheapest tests, offered by companies including 23AndMe and Ancestry.com, only look at a prespecified set of the more than 6 billion letters in the genome, in a process known as genotyping. The next step up is exome sequencing, and offers a look at “chapters” of the book that is our genome for around $300. The ultimate package is whole genome sequencing, which can be upward of $500, but the trick here is sorting through all the data to extract meaningful information about health and disease. Watch the short video from STAT’s Damian Garde and Alex Hogan to learn more.