Nembaware Victoria, Mulder Nicola
Division of Human Genetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Computational Biology Division, Department of Integrative Biomedical Sciences, IDM, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Front Genet. 2019 Dec 20;10:1209. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2019.01209. eCollection 2019.
The potential of genomic medicine in improving the quality of healthcare both at population and individual-level is well-recognized globally. However, successful adoption of genetic and genomic evidence into clinical practice depends on training the healthcare workforce and clinical researchers in genomic medicine. Due to limited expertise in the medical genetics and genomics field, widespread uptake largely depends on task-shifting for the implementation of genomic medicine implementation to key healthcare professionals such as nurses. Their knowledge would be developed through courses aimed at professional development. Globally, trainers, and training initiatives in genomic medicine are in early stages of development, but resource limited settings such as the African continent face additional logistical and institutional challenges. The African Genomic Medicine Training (AGMT) Initiative was conceived during a combined conference of the African Society of Human Genetics (AfSHG) and the Human Heredity and Health in Africa Consortium (H3Africa) in 2016, Senegal, in response to the needs for developing knowledge and skills in genomic medicine. AGMT was established to implement a sustainable genomic medicine training initiative primarily for healthcare professionals who are not geneticists but are nurses, doctors, and pharmacists in Africa. This paper reports on the establishment of the AGMT initiative and the strategies developed and piloted by this initiative in designing and implementing an accredited frame-work and community-based blended learning course for nurses across 11 African countries. The global implementation experiences, outcomes and lessons learnt are highlighted. The AGMT initiative strategy takes advantage of existing research consortia and networks to train and create a pool of trainers and has adopted evidence-based approaches to guide curriculum and content development/adaptation. This initiative established the first Africa-wide online blended learning genomic medicine course which forms the basis from which to develop courses for other healthcare professionals and the wider public.
全球普遍认识到基因组医学在提高人群和个体层面医疗保健质量方面的潜力。然而，将遗传和基因组证据成功应用于临床实践取决于对医疗保健人员和临床研究人员进行基因组医学培训。由于医学遗传学和基因组学领域的专业知识有限，广泛应用很大程度上取决于将基因组医学实施任务转移给护士等关键医疗保健专业人员。他们的知识将通过旨在促进专业发展的课程来培养。在全球范围内，基因组医学的培训人员和培训倡议尚处于发展初期，但像非洲大陆这样资源有限的地区面临着更多后勤和机构方面的挑战。非洲基因组医学培训（AGMT）倡议于2016年在塞内加尔举行的非洲人类遗传学会（AfSHG）和非洲人类遗传与健康联盟（H3Africa）联合会议期间构想而成，以应对培养基因组医学知识和技能的需求。AGMT的设立是为了实施一项可持续的基因组医学培训倡议，主要面向非洲非遗传学家的医疗保健专业人员，即护士、医生和药剂师。本文报告了AGMT倡议的设立情况，以及该倡议在为11个非洲国家的护士设计和实施认可框架及基于社区的混合学习课程时所制定和试点的策略。文中突出了全球实施经验、成果和教训。AGMT倡议策略利用现有的研究联盟和网络来培训并创建一批培训人员，并采用循证方法来指导课程和内容开发/改编工作。该倡议设立了首个全非洲范围的在线混合学习基因组医学课程，这构成了为其他医疗保健专业人员和更广泛公众开发课程的基础。
