It’s #GenomicsConversation Week 2019!
Join the GEP this week and get more familiar with genomics, discover its impact on patients and their families, and make your own genomics pledge
Today is the start of the second #GenomicsConversation, the Genomics Education Programme’s (GEP) annual week of action for all health professionals.
The goal for the week is to spark a conversation among health professionals about genomics in healthcare and to raise awareness and increase familiarity with genomics terminology so they feel more comfortable discussing genomic testing with their patients.
Here’s what we have in store this week.
Day 1: Genomics Unzipped podcast
To kickstart the week, the GEP, in partnership with The Genetics Society, has co-produced an episode of the Genetics Unzipped podcast, which is available today. This special podcast will look at how genomics is changing healthcare, with a focus on developments in the cancer pathway and the impact for patient outcomes.
The podcast features interviews with Barts Cancer Institute clinical research fellow Dr Alison Berner; Macmillan specialist advisor in treatment and recovery Dany Bell; Manchester University professor of translational genomic medicine and honorary consultant at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust Prof Bill Newman; and GEP scientific director Dr Anneke Seller. You can listen to this special episode here.
Day 2: Talking Genomics with Patients event
New to the #GenomicsConversation for 2019 is an evening panel event Talking Genomics with Patients, taking place on Tuesday 5 March in Birmingham. The GEP has joined forces with Progress Educational Trust to bring together a panel of 100,000 Genomes Project participants, who will be talking about the impact of genomic testing on their lives and their families’.
We hope the event will bring the patient experience centre stage and provide health professionals with useful insights into how best to communicate genomic information. Free places are still available, and you can book your place now by emailing sstarr@progress.org.uk.
Day 3: Genomics 101 courses
Wednesday will see the launch of the first in a series of introductory courses covering the fundamentals of genomics and its impact on healthcare. Created for health professionals with little or no previous knowledge of genomics, the courses aim to give a grounding in the science while exploring the application of genomics in healthcare. Search for ‘Genomics 101’ on the e-Learning for Healthcare e-learning portal.
Day 4: Genomics Game quiz
Join us from 2pm on Thursday and test your genomics knowledge in our Genomics Game quiz. Throughout the afternoon, we’ll be posting on Twitter a series of questions from our popular board game, and you will have until 2pm Friday 8th March to tweet your answers. The NHS health professional with the best score will win their own copy of the board game. (In the event of a draw, we’ll select a name randomly.)
Continuing the gaming theme, we will be testing out a new educational game, Dr Jargon: Genomics edition with a group of health professionals, and will be posting live from the session on Twitter.
Day 5: Make your pledge
The final day of our week will be all about discovery and learning. We will be encouraging health professionals to make a pledge to continue their genomics journey, whether it’s watching and sharing one of our short films or infographics, taking one of our new Genomics 101 modules, or signing up to our FutureLearn course on whole genome sequencing, which starts on 13th May. You can find out more on our website, which includes some suggested pledges to get you started.
We welcome all health professionals to join the GenomicsConversation on Twitter and Facebook this week, so please feel free to share with your colleagues. And do make sure to use the #GenomicsConversation hashtag and tag @genomicsedu so we can like or share your posts.
