From the Cleveland Clinic: Genomic Counseling in the Newborn Period: Experiences and Views of Genetic Counselors

J Genet Couns. 2014 Mar 23. [Epub ahead of print]

Genomic Counseling in the Newborn Period: Experiences and Views of Genetic Counselors.

Nardini MD1, Matthews AL, McCandless SE, Baumanis L, Goldenberg AJ.

Author information

• 1Genomic Medicine Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.

Abstract

As newborn screening (NBS) technology expands, genetic counselors will become more involved in counseling for NBS results, including those potentially generated from whole exome sequencing (WES) and eventually whole genome sequencing (WGS). Members of the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) responded to an online survey (n = 208) regarding genomic counseling in the context of NBS. The majority of participants (82.1 %) did not feel prepared to counsel for WGS results from NBS. Counselors with previous WES/WGS counseling experience felt more prepared (p = 0.005) to counsel for WGS results from NBS than those without WES/WGS experience. Overall, counselors expressed ethical and practical concerns regarding WGS in NBS, as well as a need for additional training regarding this application of the technology before it is implemented. Based on the results of this study, genetic counselors voice caution to the larger genetics community regarding expansion of NBS to incorporate genomic sequencing and advocate for additional education prior to initiating WGS into NBS.