{"id":155772,"date":"2025-06-03T21:12:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T21:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/155772\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T21:12:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T21:12:11","slug":"upskilling-healthcare-staff-in-genetics-and-genomics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/155772\/","title":{"rendered":"Upskilling healthcare staff in genetics and genomics\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent international workshop hosted by the Mater Hospital aimed to address educational gaps in genomic medicine. David<\/strong> Lynch<\/strong> reports<\/p>\n

In April, the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin hosted the European Society of Human Genetics\u2019 (ESHG) precision genomic medicine workshop.<\/p>\n

The hybrid event had a focus on clinical utility. It was described by organisers as the first of its kind \u201cin scale and scope globally\u201d.<\/p>\n

The workshop emerged through a collaboration between the Mater, the ESHG, the Human Genomic Society of Australasia, and the Canadian College of Medical Geneticists.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Medical Independent (MI)<\/strong>, Dr James O\u2019Byrne, Consultant Clinical Geneticist at the Mater Hospital, said the workshop\u2019s aim was to provide practical education.<\/p>\n

With the field of genomics making significant strides in recent years, an educational gap has emerged in its clinical use across medicine.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dr James O\u2019Byrne<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the reason why [the workshop] is important and the reason why the three major genetics societies have come together for the first time to do this,\u201d Dr O\u2019Byrne told MI<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause there is a recognition that there needs to be a general upskilling of healthcare staff in the application of genetics and genomics in clinical practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is because, essentially, the technology that has developed to allow for genomics to be used in healthcare has pushed genomics into healthcare in a way that it can\u2019t be ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr O\u2019Byrne said these developments have caught many people working in medicine \u201cby surprise\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that too few healthcare professionals currently have the skills and knowledge to apply genomic technology in \u201can efficient, effective, and safe way\u201d.<\/p>\n

The lack of adequate education to support the implementation of these medical advances remains a significant challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the promise is huge around this,\u201d said Dr O\u2019Byrne, \u201cbut you have to know how to do it properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it was vital for all healthcare staff \u2013 not just consultants but \u201cthe support staff around them\u201d \u2013 to be informed about genomic advances.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has to be a general upskilling across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

There has to be a general upskilling across the world<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

International<\/p>\n

The workshop welcomed speakers and attendees from 54 countries. The participants included educators and experts in the field of precision medicine from multiple clinical and academic institutions, including Ireland.<\/p>\n

According to the organisers, the workshop provided up-to-date practical knowledge of the area and equipped the attendees with the basic principles of precision medicine.<\/p>\n

Speakers included Dr Leslie Biesecker, Director of the Centre for Precision Health Research at the National Institutes of Health\u2019s National Human Genome Research Institute, US.<\/p>\n

Dr John McDermott, Clinical Geneticist and National Institute for Health and Care Research Academic Clinical Lecturer, University of Manchester, UK, spoke on the everyday application of genomics in healthcare.<\/p>\n

According to Dr O\u2019Byrne, genomics is now being applied in \u201cdifferent shapes and forms\u201d across healthcare.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just about making a diagnosis in a patient or a family \u2013 it is also the different gene-related therapies that have come in \u2013 there are multiple strands to it and they are all interconnected\u2026 the bottom unifier is that someone is looking at the person\u2019s DNA information.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that much of this progress has only taken place over the \u201clast 20 to 30 years\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are gene therapies that are coming through now that we would have [only] talked about in the 1990s\u2026 we didn\u2019t really see them until very recently.\u201d<\/p>\n

The workshop was designed to equip attendees with a broad understanding of key aspects of precision genomic medicine, including both current and emerging applications in germline and somatic contexts.<\/p>\n

Participants learned how to build an effective, balanced multi-disciplinary clinic involving both laboratory and clinical experts. They also discussed gene- and genotype-driven therapies that are now becoming available in clinical practice. Ethical considerations and the role of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, were also central themes throughout the workshop.<\/p>\n

According to organisers, modern healthcare increasingly enables clinicians and scientists to make accurate diagnoses and offer targeted therapies based on well-defined, biologically informed disease subtypes. These approaches take into account individual differences in genetic makeup, behaviour, culture, lifestyle, and environmental factors.<\/p>\n

Recent advances in science and technology \u2013 particularly in genomics \u2013 have generated new insights into the foundations of health and disease, ushering in a new era of medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is often likened to the Wright brothers\u2019 first flight in 1903 and then landing on the moon 66 years later,\u201d said Dr O\u2019Byrne, about the scale of recent progress.<\/p>\n

From the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 to the development of next-generation sequencing \u2013 which has enabled \u201cmassive parallel sequencing\u201d \u2013\u00a0\u00a0 the technology has become \u201ca lot quicker and also a lot cheaper\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rather than costing billions of US dollars, sequencing a genome can now cost under a thousand dollars, with some now aiming for a \u2018hundred-dollar genome\u2019.<\/p>\n

Timeframes have also shifted significantly, with processes that once took years now achievable in a matter of hours.<\/p>\n

National strategy<\/p>\n

On a policy level in Ireland, there have been recent publications and developments in the area.<\/p>\n

The National Strategy for Accelerating Genetic and Genomic Medicine in Ireland was published in December 2022. The National Genetics and Genomics Office (NGGO) was established in 2023 to drive the implementation of the strategy.<\/p>\n

The NGGO has the stated aim of improving Ireland\u2019s genetic and genomic medicine services.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, HSE National Doctors Training and Planning (NDTP) published a report entitled Clinical Genetics Medical Workforce in Ireland 2024-2038.<\/p>\n

According to the document, as of July 2024, there were eight consultants employed within the HSE as consultants in clinical genetics.<\/p>\n

These consultants all work full-time, with four expected to reach retirement age in the next 10 years.<\/p>\n

The majority of this workforce are based in the Department of Clinical Genetics in Children\u2019s Health Ireland (CHI) in Dublin.<\/p>\n

The report also highlighted that cancer genetics services are provided at St James\u2019s Hospital in Dublin by consultant medical oncologists with expertise in genetics. However, these roles fall outside the scope of the NDTP report, which focused solely on consultants in clinical genetics.<\/p>\n

According to the report, the current staffing level amounts to roughly 0.15 whole-time equivalent (WTE) consultants per 100,000 people \u2013 half the recommended minimum of 0.3 per 100,000 set by international guidelines.<\/p>\n

Based on 2024 population figures, the report estimates a need for 16 WTE consultants in clinical genetics, rising to 18 WTE by 2038.<\/p>\n

For more information about the precision genomic medicine workshop, visit: www.mater.ie\/healthcare-professionals\/eshg-precision-medicine\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recent international workshop hosted by the Mater Hospital aimed to address educational gaps in genomic medicine. David…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[267,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-155772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-genetics","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114621496943628454","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}