deCODE You

We are very happy to announce today that deCODEme has been awarded the presitigious HONcode certification. This is the oldest and best known system for certifying that information on medical websites is ethically and credibly presented.

HONcode stands for the same principles we do. It conducts a rigorous and dynamic evaluation of how information is presented to users – involving individuals, physicians, and the provider of the service. The goal is to ensure that medically relevant information is presented in a way that enables users to understand what the information is useful for as well as the science upon which it is based. deCODEme provides this information to individual subscribers and, through the deCODEHealth interface, it also enables individuals to share their profile with their doctor and to integrate deCODEme as a component of their personal healthcare strategy.

As we have always said, and as our users know, what sets deCODEme and deCODEHealth apart is the scientific leadership of the team behind the service. These are online services, but we are not a dot-com company. Our services are developed and offered by the same people who over more than a decade have discovered most of the important genetic risk factors we test for. This is our commitment to our subscribers, and to the medical professionals and healthcare systems that are leading the way in employing genetics to deliver the best healthcare for their patients.

So this certification is as much about you as it is about us – congratulations!

The deCODEme Team

Californians can now enjoy the benefits of deCODE’s market-leading DNA-based disease risk assessment tests and pioneering deCODEme™ genome scans

deCODE genetics today announced that it has received a clinical laboratory license from the State of California. The quality and scale of deCODE’s in-house, CLIA-registered genotyping laboratory underpins deCODE’s global leadership in the discovery of variations in the sequence of the human genome conferring risk of common diseases. The same staff and facility also process deCODE’s DNA-based reference laboratory tests for gauging individual risk of major public health challenges ranging from heart attack to breast cancer, as well as the company’s pioneering deCODEme™ scans, the world’s first personal genome analysis and focused disease area scans. With this license, California residents can now benefit from the unrivaled quality of deCODE products for understanding risk and, working with their physicians, empowering the prevention of common diseases.
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deCODE customer rep Larus Jon Gudmundsson and genetic counselor Kris Kristjansson MD

Tapping the vast resources of deCODEme scientists

The users of deCODEme show great interest in their results and are not afraid to ask questions. deCODEme customer support welcomes all questions and inquiries and taps the vast knowledge base and resources of its research teams to respond to all emails as comprehensively and quickly as possible. Among the more general questions we receive is the following.

Question
“I’m seriously thinking about doing the DNA test. Now I only have to decide from which company. How does your test compare with tests from other companies?”
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Scientists at deCODE genetics Genetic Service Facility lab in Iceland

The number of companies offering genetic tests to the public is large and growing. But there are vast and very real differences in the quality, purpose and price of testing services out there. So how do you tell the difference between them? And how do you decide which to use?

Knowing what you want

First and foremost, you need to think about what sort of information you hope to gain from your genome and how accurate you want the results to be. Are you taking the test only for fun, perhaps hoping to talk about your results on Facebook? Read the rest of this entry »