Practice Management Are DNA Relationship Testing Services a Good Match for Urgent Care? Urgent message: The last 10 years have seen a dramatic increase in DNA parentage testing. Yet, the DNA testing industry remains, in essence, unregulated. Can urgent care providers fulfill a need for ethical and clinically reliable access, while receiving direct and immediate payment for your services? Elizabeth Panke, MD, PhD or many generations, defining the parent-child relationship was easy. The woman who gave birth to the child was the child’s legal mother; to a large ex- tent, fatherhood was as- signed on a social basis. With the advent of DNA testing, however, the social definition of fatherhood is increasingly being replaced by a genetic test. Advances in the technology employed in DNA testing have pushed the issue of fatherhood into the public spotlight—witness the tabloid-fed frenzy sur- rounding the paternity of the late Anna Nicole Smith’s child—and forced many to re-evaluate the definition of “family.” F w w w. j u c m . c o m The American Association of Blood Banks reports that more than 1 million persons undergo DNA parentage test- ing each year, with double- digit growth each year. 1 The growth of commercial DNA- based parentage testing has been further spurred by our social and legal systems. The federal Child Support Enforcement and Paternity Establishment Program was created in 1975 to help es- tablish paternity for a grow- ing number of non-marital children and to support col- lection of child support pay- ments. 2 The Family Support Act of 1988 requires states to have all parties in a contested paternity case take a ge- netic test upon the request of any concerned party. 3 © kativ/iStockPhoto.com Introduction JUCM T h e J o u r n a l o f U r g e n t C a r e M e d i c i n e | M a y 2 0 0 7 31