Evaluating the impact of accessible low-cost pediatric genetic testing on underserved communities in the United States.

Background: Genetic testing is at the forefront of medical diagnosis, management, and preventative care particularly within the field of nephrology, but such testing can be prohibitively expensive for patients from disadvantaged backgrounds. This study is aimed at exploring how use of a low-cost, comprehensive commercial panel could increase availability of genetic testing to patients served by an inner-city American hospital and overcome many of the obstacles faced by these patients, including lack of availability of pediatric geneticist and genetic counselors, leading to delay in care and management, cost of genetic testing, and inaccessibility of genetic testing to underserved populations.

Methods: Single-center retrospective analysis patients who underwent genetic testing with NATERA Renasight Kidney Gene Panels run between November 2020 and October 2021.