New Educational Resource Prepares Clinicians for Genomic Medicine | Genetic Alliance

New Educational Resource Prepares Clinicians for Genomic Medicine | Genetic Alliance

New Educational Resource Prepares Clinicians for Genomic Medicine

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 22, 2013

Contact: James O'Leary 202-966-5557 x206 joleary@geneticalliance.org

New Educational Resource Prepares Clinicians
for Genomic Medicine 

Washington, DC - May 22, 2013 - With genomic advances becoming increasingly pervasive in medical care, approaches to prepare clinicians to integrate genomics into their clinical practice are urgently needed. The National Coalition for Health Professional Education in Genetics (NCHPEG), Genetic Alliance (GA), and the Genomic Medicine Institute (GMI) at El Camino Hospital, Mountain View, California teamed up to develop a hospital-based CME curriculum, "Medicine's Future: Genomics for Practicing Doctors," to help El Camino Hospital providers integrate genomic thinking into their practice. The curriculum can be licensed and made available to other hospitals and health systems. Each two-hour workshop of the curriculum is supported with a lesson plan, learning objectives, teaching tools, case studies, and pre- and post-tests.
"Engaging clinicians requires an approach that emphasizes the relevancy of the information to their practice, provides participants an opportunity to practice their new skills in a safe environment with peer feedback, and meets the time constraints of busy practicing clinicians" says course director, Kate Reed. The 10-month curriculum uses an interactive, case-based approach to engage participants in uncovering the genomic principles that guide risk assessment, testing, and communication with patients. The curriculum consists of four two-hour workshops that cover fundamental concepts, followed by six that address specific conditions, for example, cancer genetics. The workshops are facilitated by content experts.
An important feature of the curriculum is its patient-centric approach. Patient videos developed by Genetic Alliance highlight the importance of genomic information to individuals and families. "The El Camino Hospital providers emphasized how the patients' stories made the integration of genomics into their practice both personal and accessible," said James O'Leary, Chief Innovation Officer at Genetic Alliance. The impact of the first course offering at El Camino Hospital is ongoing. "We undertook this project with NCHPEG and Genetic Alliance because our doctors recognized that they needed to learn more about genomics. Since taking the course, they have continued to meet and started a genomics case conference to discuss cases from their practice," said Lynn Dowling, executive director of the El Camino Hospital GMI.
For more information about the curriculum, please visit our website at http://tiny.cc/medfuture or contact Kate Reed (kreed@nchpeg.org).

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About Genetic Alliance
Genetic Alliance improves health through the authentic engagement of individuals, families, and communities. Genetic Alliance is the world’s leading nonprofit health advocacy organization committed to transforming health through genetics and works to connect consumers to the smart services they need to make informed decisions about their health and healthcare. Genetic Alliance's network includes more than 1,000 disease-specific advocacy organizations, as well as thousands of universities, private companies, government agencies, and public policy organizations. To learn more about Genetic Alliance, visit http://www.geneticalliance.org.
About the National Coalition for Health Professional Education in Genetics
NCHPEG promotes health professional education and information about advances in human genetics to improve health care by integrating genetics into the knowledge base of health professionals, developing educational tools and information resources to integrate genetics into health professional practice, and strenghening and expanding the interdisciplinary community of organizations and individuals committed to coordinated genetics education for health professionals.http://www.nchpeg.org.
About El Camino's Genomic Medicine Institute
GMI helps speed the translation of genomic science from the research labs to the medical offices of El Camino Hospital physicians for the benefit of patients and the community. For more information, visit http://www.elcaminohospital.org/Genomic_Medicine_Institute
About El Camino Hospital
El Camino Hospital is an acute-care, 443-bed, nonprofit and locally governed organization with campuses in Mountain View and Los Gatos, Calif. In addition to state-of-the-art emergency departments, key medical specialties include heart and vascular, cancer care, urology, orthopedic and spine, genomic medicine, and the only Women's Hospital in Northern California. The hospital is recognized as a national leader in the use of health information technology and wireless communications, and has been awarded the Gold Seal of Approval from The Joint Commission as a Primary Stroke Center as well as back-to-back ANCC Magnet Recognitions for Nursing Care. To learn more, visit http://www.elcaminohospital.org.