My first job out of college was with a startup that did health risk assessments. Part of this involved the use of new genetic markers for disease. This was de

My first job out of college was with a startup that did health risk assessments. Part of this involved the use of new genetic markers for disease. This was decades ago (yes before the Internet even!) so it was early days for genetic testing. We had an expert system that put a questionnaire in front of customers and charged them for the resulting recommendations and any tests we did. Two 'hot' technologies of the time: expert systems and genetic testing. We learned: 1. people want >answers< not statistical results. 2. people told they have a significant probability of a disease get unhappy. Do that enough times someone gets unhappy enough to sue. So your follow-up debriefings have to be done carefully and in person - very expensive. The lawyers that ran the company did not see the cost of lawsuits, on top of the high cost and error rates for genetic testing at the time, as a deal breaker going in. Good to see 23andMe make what looks like a better attempt at this market.