Genomics – the study of the genome, an organism’s complete set of DNA - is revolutionising medicine and healthcare. Genomic testing has become faster and cheaper, and it is now possible to use genomics in a wide variety of areas.
But have you ever wondered how? And who is involved in the process of finding results for patients?
In this video, Dr Michelle Bishop from Health Education England’s Genomics Education Programme introduces the professionals that make up the ‘genomics team’; the people who work together to find genetic diagnoses for patients.
Dr Bishop explains that the genomics team is made up of four groups of professionals:
- clinical geneticists (medically trained doctors) and genomic counsellors (trained counsellors with expertise in genomic science), who see patients in clinic and order genomic tests;
- laboratory scientists - including clinical scientists and genetic technicians - who process samples, perform genomic testing and interpret results from testing; and
- clinical bioinformaticians, who have expert biological and computer programming skills and run software pipelines to ensure that genomic data is interrogated in the right way for each patient and that their colleagues are presented with a manageable amount of relevant data to consider.
Michelle also explains that the genomics team works closely with specialists from across other medical specialties, such as cardiology and neurology, in order to interpret results accurately for patients within the clinical context.
You can learn more about these professions on the genomics careers page on the GEP website - [ Ссылка ].
Health Education England's Genomics Education Programme is developing a substantial education programme to inform healthcare professionals about the impact of genomics on clinical practice. This video is one of the many educational resources from the programme. For more information visit [ Ссылка ].
