In an effort to explore the potential of personalized medicine, journalist David Duncan underwent hundreds of medical tests. He has now written a book, “Experimental Man: What One Man’s Body Reveals About His Future, Your Health and Our Toxic World”, describing his journey. From genetic tests aimed at uncovering his risks for over 37 diseases to detailed blood tests taken to help determine his chances of having a heart attack, it seems doctors tested and analyzed just about every part of Duncan’s body that they could.

One question Duncan asks in his book is whether, in the future, doctors will focus more on testing the healthy to try to keep them healthy, rather than treating those who are already ill. While doctors already do use family history and diagnostic tests to determine people’s risks for specific diseases, Duncan contemplates how new technologies and comprehensive genomic analyses might one day be routinely used to predict a broader range of illnesses.

However, even if advanced tests could provide a better pictur of our future health, with listed test prices of up to $40,000 much of the world’s population would likely not benefit from such tests. Costs aside, how much would a person want to know about his or her risk of future illnesses, especially about an untreatable illness? And is it possible to undergo one test too many?

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