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From:
Subject: Re: [DNA] Experimenting with Family Finder Chromosome Browser
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 23:58:45 -0400


> it is a meaningless match since
> it is not identical by descent
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You raise a premature reliability concern. If these companies cannot predict IBD with any degree of accuracy, then what is to prevent the government from scrutinizing these tests and telling us that ancestry tests are no more ready for prime time than some of the genomic health tests? Instead of just worrying about clinical validity, we may now have to worry about "ancestral validity" before a test can be performed. If you look at the clinical validity definition taken from the CDC, clinical validity and ancestral validity are not so different. Both could fit the same definition: "How consistently and accurately the test detects or predicts the intermediate or final outcomes of interest." What if these companies could no longer market these as "Family Finders" or "Relative Finders" because customers claimed that they have not accurately found their families.


I have found distant cousins and believe it is possible to confirm ancestral sequences utilizing these types of tests. Although the segments are not yet absolute proof of an IBD segment, it would be very counterproductive to urge people to give up without even giving the technology at least a running chance to prove the validity of distant ancestry testing and/or to improve outcomes over time.


Kathy J.




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