National Institutes of Health (U.S.). Secretary's Advisory Committee on Genetic Testing

The Secretary's Advisory Committee on Genetic Testing (SACGT) was chartered June 1998 in the Office of Biotechnology Activities, National Institutes of Health (U.S.), to provide policy advice to the Department of Health and Human Services on a broad array of medical, ethical, legal, and social issues raised by the development and use of genetic technologies. Issues suggested by the charter included: the development of guidelines, including criteria regarding risks and benefits of genetic testing, to assist Institutional Review Boards in reviewing genetic testing protocols in both academic and commercial settings; the adequacy of regulatory oversight of genetic tests; provisions for assuring the quality of genetic testing laboratories; the need for mechanisms to track the introduction of genetic tests to enable accuracy and clinical effectiveness over time to be evaluated; and safeguarding the privacy and confidentiality of genetic information and preventing discrimination and stimatization based on genetic information. The Committee's inaugural meeting was 30 June 1999; its charter expired 10 August 2002. Edward R.B. McCabe served as Committee Chair from 1999 through 2002.