Welcome to our First Edition
This is the first edition of the N.C. Task Force on Genomics and Public Health's newsletter. The “email only” document will be sent to Task Force members bi-monthly. The newsletter is intended to increase communication among Task Force members, by giving readers short updates on genomic happenings, as well as provide summaries of emerging information, and provide links for further reading. Please feel free to forward newsworthy information to Donna.Spoon@ncmail.net.
NCHPEG Annual Meeting Highlights
Several Task Force members attended this year's National Coalition for Health Professional Education in Genetics (NCHPEG) 7 th annual meeting in Bethesda, Maryland from January 29 through 30, where this year's central topic was religion and spirituality. NCHPEG chose this topic for presentations and a panel discussion in response to a need expressed by spiritual advisors in health care settings, who increasingly encounter issues related to genetic medicine. Representatives from more than 120 NCHPEG member organizations joined in an exploration of how religious beliefs can influence perceptions of genetic medicine, and how patients and families call upon religion and spirituality to make decisions, to cope, and to find meaning in difficult circumstances. Reverend Ron Cole-Turner from the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary began the meeting with a discussion titled Religion and Genetics in the Clinical Encounter, wherein he highlighted fundamental questions and dilemmas often invoked in the genetics clinic by discussions of risk and uncertainty, disease and disability, or death. In Genetics in the Context of Divine Determinism: Muslim Views about Genetic Testing, |
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Dr. Abdulaziz Sachedina, professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia, outlined some central assumptions and values in Muslim faith that may be relevant in practice.
The third speaker and panel member, Rebecca Rae Anderson, JD, MS, from the University of Nebraska School of Medicine, presented research titled Religious Traditions and Prenatal Genetic Counseling.
Other speakers and topics at this year's meeting included the following:
Health Education on the Web: What Works and What Doesn't -Judy Ribble, director of continuing medical education at WebMD
- Customized On-line Curricula: Creating Genetics Tutorials with Lesson Builder - Shirley Chan, Dolan DNA Learning Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
- Genetics & Your Practice: A New and Innovative Genetic resource on the Web - Terri Creeden, director of professional genetics education at the March of Dimes
- The Political and Social Implications of Whole Genome Analysis: A Technological Perspective - Thane Kreiner, Affymetrix, Inc.
- A Trial Comparing a Computer Program with Genetic Counseling for BRCA1/BRCA2 Genetic Testing - Michael Green, Penn State College of Medicine
- Health Professional Education Activities and Perspectives of Medical Geneticists: Findings of the 2003 Medical Geneticists Survey – Judith Beckendorf, Genetic Services and Health Workforce Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine. Speakers’ PowerPoint presentations, including the keynote address by Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Institute and chairman of NCHPEG’s board of directors, are available for free viewing and downloading at www.nchpeg.org
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