Chu Annie Tsz Wai, Chung Claudia Ching Yan, Hue Shirley Pik Ying, Chung Brian Hon Yin
Hong Kong Genome Institute, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Front Genet. 2023 Aug 3;14:1239817. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2023.1239817. eCollection 2023.
The need for the expansion of genomic services has been at a record time high in the past decade. As technological advancement continues to strengthen the entire genetic and genomic pipeline and clinical operational workflow, the major challenge remains to be the speed of workforce development to meet service growth. In particular, the international expansion of genetic counselling (GC) services has been a topic of interest for the past few years. GC is an emerging profession in most of Asia, and in many countries the profession of GC often refers to physicians or front-line health workers with expertise in genetics to provide GC services rather than being a specific independent profession. As genetic and genomic services, especially pre-test and post-test GC, expand globally, the need to tackle the longstanding obstacles of GC personnel shortage and funding issues must not be overlooked. There is an urgent need internationally, and especially in Asia, where GC profession is comparatively less well-established, to seek alternative approaches to meet service demand. The present review examines the global development and feasibility of tele-genetics and tele-genetic counselling (TGC), and serves as the foundation to explore a possible roadmap in Hong Kong via the Hong Kong Genome Project.
在过去十年中,对基因组服务扩展的需求一直处于创纪录的高位。随着技术进步不断加强整个遗传和基因组流程以及临床操作工作流程,主要挑战仍然是劳动力发展的速度,以满足服务增长的需求。特别是,遗传咨询(GC)服务的国际扩展在过去几年一直是一个备受关注的话题。在亚洲大部分地区,GC是一个新兴职业,在许多国家,GC职业通常指具有遗传学专业知识的医生或一线卫生工作者来提供GC服务,而不是一个特定的独立职业。随着遗传和基因组服务,特别是检测前和检测后的GC在全球范围内的扩展,解决GC人员短缺和资金问题等长期障碍的必要性不容忽视。在国际上,尤其是在GC职业相对不太成熟的亚洲,迫切需要寻求替代方法来满足服务需求。本综述探讨了远程遗传学和远程遗传咨询(TGC)的全球发展和可行性,并作为通过香港基因组计划探索香港可能路线图的基础。