Karen Powell answers the question, “Why is it important to record family health history information?” She explains how to interpret your family health history once you’ve collected and recorded this information. Karen talks about how genetic counselors can help you interpret your family health history information and use it to your advantage to improve health by knowing (and decreasing) your disease risk.

Powell is a cancer genetic counselor at the Cone Health Cancer Center. She attended the University of Minnesota for her genetic counseling program and has practiced in many areas, including prenatal, pediatric and adult genetics clinics, clinical genetic research and cancer genetics. She joined the Cone Health Cancer center in 2013.