Patient-focused pathogen genetic counselling-has the time come?

Angeline S Ferdinand; Jane S Hocking; Justin T Denholm; Benjamin P Howden; Deborah A Williamson

doi:10.1186/s13073-021-00993-w

Patient-focused pathogen genetic counselling-has the time come?

Genome Med. 2021 Nov 8;13(1):178. doi: 10.1186/s13073-021-00993-w.

Authors

Angeline S Ferdinand^{1

2}, Jane S Hocking³, Justin T Denholm^{4

5}, Benjamin P Howden⁶, Deborah A Williamson^{7

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Melbourne at The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, 792 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, 3100, Australia. a.ferdinand@unimelb.edu.au.
² Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. a.ferdinand@unimelb.edu.au.
³ Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
⁴ Victorian Tuberculosis Program, Melbourne Health, Melbourne, Australia.
⁵ Department of Infectious Diseases, The University of Melbourne at The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, 792 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, 3100, Australia.
⁶ Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Melbourne at The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, 792 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, 3100, Australia.
⁷ Department of Infectious Diseases, The University of Melbourne at The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, 792 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, 3100, Australia. deborah.williamson@unimelb.edu.au.
⁸ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Melbourne at The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, 792 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, Australia. deborah.williamson@unimelb.edu.au.
⁹ Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Royal Melbourne Hospital at The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Australia. deborah.williamson@unimelb.edu.au.

Abstract

Ensuring accordance with principles of healthcare ethics requires improved communication of pathogen genomic data. This could include educating healthcare professionals in communicating pathogen genomic information to individuals, developing ethical frameworks for reporting pathogen genomic results to individuals, responsible media reporting guidelines, and counselling for individuals ('pathogen genetic counselling').

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19
Communication
Genetic Counseling / ethics*
Genetic Counseling / methods*
Genomics*
Humans
Public Health
SARS-CoV-2

Supplementary concepts

SARS-CoV-2 variants