Your patients may be firing questions at you about the role genetics plays in their health. The Academy is trying to help you find answers. The Annual Clinical Focus 2005 Genomics has been posting Video CME programs online about once a month, and three recently developed sessions cover colorectal cancer, newborn screening and hemochromatosis.
Take Video CME on Impact of Genetics
New Programs Cover Colorectal Cancer, Newborn Screening, Hemochromatosis
By News Staff
11/9/2005
AAFP members may view these programs for free and may receive one CME credit for each of these three programs. Why bother with genomics? "Everything in medicine, with the possible exception of trauma, is genetic," says Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Colorectal cancer. "The typical primary care practice will have between two and eight patients whose families are considered at high risk for an inherited colorectal syndrome," say the introductory materials for this Video CME program.
Watch this program to learn about family history characteristics associated with increased colorectal cancer risk, and consider early screening for your patients who have a positive family history. The program aims to help you counsel patients who have colorectal cancer about informing family members of the diagnosis and encouraging them to talk with their physicians about their need for "aggressive" screening.
Newborn screening. "The scope of newborn screening is expanding," says Nancy Stevens, M.D., M.P.H., family medicine professor in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, and medical director of ACF 2005 Genomics. In this Video CME program, cystic fibrosis is used as a springboard for discussing complexities associated with newborn screening.
In the program introduction, Stevens says new technologies such as tandem mass spectometry can detect numerous disorders, but a few of the detected conditions "may have an ill-defined natural history, treatments that may be only partially effective, and a narrow window of opportunity for early detection and treatment. Potential benefits to family members or others may or may not make it appropriate to screen newborns for disorders in the absence of beneficial treatments or effective strategies to prevent morbidity."
Stevens advises family physicians, "You provide a continuous care relationship that can help parents work through what impact, if any, screening for genetic disorders has on their child and their family."
Hemochromatosis. This Video CME program calls hereditary hemochromatosis, or HHC, the most common inherited disorder among people of northern European descent. HHC, characterized by increased iron absorption and accumulation in tissues and organs, and can lead to cirrhosis, type 2 diabetes, cardiomyopathy, arthritis, hypogonadism, impotence and abnormal skin pigmentation.
"Iron overload can be treated simply and safely -- and end-organ damage can be avoided -- with regular blood donation," the program materials say. The program covers the epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment of HHC caused by genetic mutations involving the so-called hemochromatosis gene, HFE, and discusses personal and familial implications of genetic testing for HHC."
Colorectal cancer. "The typical primary care practice will have between two and eight patients whose families are considered at high risk for an inherited colorectal syndrome," say the introductory materials for this Video CME program.
Watch this program to learn about family history characteristics associated with increased colorectal cancer risk, and consider early screening for your patients who have a positive family history. The program aims to help you counsel patients who have colorectal cancer about informing family members of the diagnosis and encouraging them to talk with their physicians about their need for "aggressive" screening.
Newborn screening. "The scope of newborn screening is expanding," says Nancy Stevens, M.D., M.P.H., family medicine professor in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, and medical director of ACF 2005 Genomics. In this Video CME program, cystic fibrosis is used as a springboard for discussing complexities associated with newborn screening.
In the program introduction, Stevens says new technologies such as tandem mass spectometry can detect numerous disorders, but a few of the detected conditions "may have an ill-defined natural history, treatments that may be only partially effective, and a narrow window of opportunity for early detection and treatment. Potential benefits to family members or others may or may not make it appropriate to screen newborns for disorders in the absence of beneficial treatments or effective strategies to prevent morbidity."
Stevens advises family physicians, "You provide a continuous care relationship that can help parents work through what impact, if any, screening for genetic disorders has on their child and their family."
Hemochromatosis. This Video CME program calls hereditary hemochromatosis, or HHC, the most common inherited disorder among people of northern European descent. HHC, characterized by increased iron absorption and accumulation in tissues and organs, and can lead to cirrhosis, type 2 diabetes, cardiomyopathy, arthritis, hypogonadism, impotence and abnormal skin pigmentation.
"Iron overload can be treated simply and safely -- and end-organ damage can be avoided -- with regular blood donation," the program materials say. The program covers the epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment of HHC caused by genetic mutations involving the so-called hemochromatosis gene, HFE, and discusses personal and familial implications of genetic testing for HHC."
