23andMe rolled out a new service that allows customers to rate treatments for 18 common health conditions.
As of April 19, all 23andMe customers who undergo direct-to-consumer genetic testing with the company's Health + Ancestry service will receive access to "condition pages" for conditions like asthma, depression and migraines. These pages detail scientific information on the 18 conditions, including data on their genetic and non-genetic influences.
On the condition pages, customers will also have the opportunity to rate the effectiveness of different treatments they've used, and review feedback from other customers. For each approach to managing a condition, a customer marks how the treatment impacted their symptoms, from "worsened" to "improvement." For depression, for example, customers may rate approaches like antidepressants, exercise and therapy.
23andMe gradually rolled out the condition pages — which the company characterizes as a "crowd-sourced tool" — during the past few weeks. The launch represents the first time 23andMe has enabled customers to share health information with one another, according to an April 19 company blog post.
"This offers people a different kind of information than they could get simply by doing a Google search, because it comes from others like them living with the same conditions," the blog post reads. "Genetics certainly offers important insight into how we differ in response to treatments. Allowing people to have a place to share their own experience will also aid in our understanding."