Genetic Research Centre, ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive and Child Health, Jehangir Merwanji Street, Parel, Mumbai 400 012, India.
J Genet. 2022;101(1). doi: 10.1007/s12041-022-01370-1.
Genetic counselling (GC) is a process of communicating and educating patients and/or their family members diagnosed with genetic abnormalities. Ideally, GC is offered in-person, physical presence of both the counselee and the counsellor. However, COVID-19 pandemic and new norms of social distancing precluded undertaking GCs. In the wake of this, Genetic Research Centre at ICMR-NIRRH, Mumbai, arranged virtual sessions for GC. Here, we describe our experience of initiating genetic counselling services on virtual platform. This report presents the challenges faced by the genetic counsellors as well as the counselees and suggests a protocol to be followed during tele-genetic counselling. It is based on the retrospective data of 65 cases that were counselled from July 2020 to September 2020 which was the period of lockdown and restriction. Although a few issues emerged during the process of GC, virtual tele-counselling was a preferred option due to social distancing, lack of public transport facilities and COVID-19 specific restrictions. Effective virtual follow ups saved time, energy and finances of providers as well as clients. This article presents providers' experience of the process and some recommendations in Indian scenario.
遗传咨询（GC）是一个与被诊断出遗传异常的患者和/或其家庭成员进行沟通和教育的过程。理想情况下，GC 是面对面进行的，咨询者和咨询师都要亲自到场。然而，COVID-19 大流行和新的社交距离规范使得进行 GC 变得不可能。在这种情况下，位于印度医学研究理事会-国家传染病研究所（ICMR-NIRRH）的遗传研究中心安排了虚拟的 GC 会议。在这里，我们描述了我们在虚拟平台上启动遗传咨询服务的经验。本报告介绍了遗传咨询师以及咨询者所面临的挑战，并提出了在远程遗传咨询期间应遵循的协议。该报告基于 2020 年 7 月至 2020 年 9 月期间（封锁和限制期间）咨询的 65 例病例的回顾性数据，这些数据表明，尽管在 GC 过程中出现了一些问题，但由于社交距离、缺乏公共交通设施和 COVID-19 特定限制，虚拟远程咨询是一个首选方案。有效的虚拟随访为提供者和客户节省了时间、精力和资金。本文介绍了提供者在印度情况下对这一过程的体验和一些建议。
