The health benefits of genomics: out with the old, in with the new.

The disproportionate emphasis on discovery research in genetics and genomics needs to be balanced by new approaches to funding translational research, development of evidence-based clinical guidelines, and robust regulation of genetic tests. These measures will help ensure that patients, providers, and others are better able to discriminate between valid genomic applications that can improve public health and those that are not useful and potentially harmful. Doing so will require that we dispense with models of research support and regulatory guidance designed for the pre-Human Genome Project world, and replace them with policies and programs as innovative as genetics research itself has been.