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Implementing genetic education in primary care: the Gen-Equip programme

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Abstract

Genetics and genomics are increasingly relevant to primary healthcare but training is unavailable to many practitioners. Education that can be accessed by practitioners without cost or travel is essential. The Gen-Equip project was formed to provide effective education in genetics for primary healthcare in Europe and so improve patient care. Partners include patient representatives and specialists in genetics and primary care from six countries. Here, we report the progress and challenges involved in creating a European online educational program in genetics.

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Acknowledgements

This project was co-funded by the European Union, Project Number 2014-1-UK01-KA204-000065 under the Erasmus + programme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. I3S Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Milena Paneque

  2. IBMC—nstitute for Molecular and Cell Biology, UnIGENe and Centre for Predictive and Preventive Genetics (CGPP), Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Milena Paneque

  3. Department of Clinical Genetics, Section Community Genetics, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Martina C Cornel & Elisa Houwink

  4. Palacky University—University Hospital Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic

    Vaclava Curtisova

  5. Charles University-University Hospital Motol, Prague, Czech Republic

    Vaclava Curtisova & Milan Macek

  6. School for Public Health and Primary Care, Department of Family Medicine, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Elisa Houwink

  7. Faculty of Health and Human Sciences, Plymouth University, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK

    Leigh Jackson, Peter Lunt & Heather Skirton

  8. Genetic Alliance UK, London, UK

    Alastair Kent

  9. Landspitali University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland

    Vigdis Stefansdottir

  10. Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Unit of Medical Genetics, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Daniela Turchetti

Authors
  1. Milena Paneque
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  2. Martina C Cornel
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  3. Vaclava Curtisova
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  4. Elisa Houwink
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  5. Leigh Jackson
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  6. Alastair Kent
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  7. Peter Lunt
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  8. Milan Macek
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  9. Vigdis Stefansdottir
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  10. Daniela Turchetti
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  11. Heather Skirton
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Heather Skirton.

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Funding

This project was co-funded by the European Union, Project Number 2014–1-UK01-KA204–000065 under the Erasmus + programme. Note: The material in this paper reflects only the author’s views and the European Commission and Ecorys UK are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Paneque, M., Cornel, M.C., Curtisova, V. et al. Implementing genetic education in primary care: the Gen-Equip programme. J Community Genet 8, 147–150 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12687-017-0296-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12687-017-0296-6

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