incidental findings

Guest:

Colleen Campbell, Assistant Director, University of Iowa - Iowa Institute for Human Genetics

Bio and Contact Info

Listen (2:35) How are you implementing genomic medicine?

Listen (3:17) Pharmacogenetic pilot with CYP219

Listen (8:24) How are you educating physicians?

Listen (2:32) Which patients are getting their exomes sequenced?

Listen (5:55) What are you doing with secondary and incidental findings?

Listen (1:30) Technical challenges?

Listen (3:33) History of IIHG

Today we take you to the front lines of clinical genomics.

Colleen Campbell is the assistant director at the Iowa Institute of Human Genetics (IIHG), a statewide resource devoted to understanding the extent and meaning of human DNA sequence variation. In March of this year, the IIHG at the University of Iowa began offering whole exome sequencing as well as some pharmacogenomic testing.

In today's interview, Colleen shares with us some practical stories outlining just how the IIHG is bringing genomics into the clinic. How did she and her colleagues go about deciding which pharmacogenomic tests to offer, and how are they dealing with the issue of incidental findings? As both a geneticist and a genetic counselor, Colleen offers a comprehensive, behind the scenes view on a story that is unfolding around the world.

At Mendelspod, we hear a lot about the challenge of educating clinicians on genomics. This has been a key area of focus for Colleen and her colleagues. The genomics team is engaging not only doctors but also nurses and the general community in new ways that could be a model for other clinics.

"Groups who are trying to implement these these kinds of tests need to think about educating the entire healthcare team," she says. "It's really important to educate everyone, from the person who greets the patient at the front desk to the nurses, the physicians, the genetic counselors, and the pharmacists--really anyone who's going to interact with the patient."

We end with a brief discussion about how the IIGH came about, and what are the next moves for Colleen and her team.

Podcast Sponsor: Integrated DNA Technologies - Introducing the evolution of NGS capture panels