‘It is clear, that the science of genomics holds tremendous potential for improving health globally… The specific challenge is how to harness this knowledge and have it contribute to health equity, especially among developing nations…’ This is a quote by Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Director General of WHO, which can be found in the year 2000 Report of the Advisory Committee on Health Research . At the same time, Craig Venter, former president of Celera Genomics, stressed the significance of this issue at the occasion of a symposium about the future of public health at Harvard School of Public Health: ‘Three years ago the human genome–the ‘book of life’–was largely unknown. Today, anyone can read what it contains. Genomics is already providing fascinating insights into our species' evolution and clues to the some of the differences between individuals in susceptibility of diseases. The key question for public health, however, is whether it will improve the health of all of the world's people, or whether it will just widen the technology gap between rich and poor. Ask people what they understand of the potential of genomics for human health, and many will talk about an unprecedented opportunity to develop new drugs and vaccines. Others are concerned that the poor will gain nothing, while the rich will gain a kind of ‘boutique medicine’: the opportunity to buy a full analysis of their personal genetic makeup, and then purchase designer therapies. If genomics is to make a major impact on global health, it will have to help provide affordable population-wide tools for combating common diseases…’ Even though there are of course compelling reasons to think globally in terms of health and genomics, first of all, we have to act locally. We have to ask the question whether we are doing ‘the right things’ …