A blueprint for maternal and child health primary care physician education in medical genetics and genomic medicine: Recommendations of the United States Secretary for Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children

Primary health care providers will play an increasingly important role in delivering genetics-related services for women and children along the reproductive continuum. However, most primary health care providers have received little training in genetics or medical genomics to incorporate such services into routine care. A workshop was convened by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Health Resources and Services Administration to identify practical strategies to educate primary care physicians involved in maternal and child health. These included developing a targeted curriculum for residency training programs, incorporating assessments of genetics and genomic medicine into the initial board certification process and the process for maintenance of certification, providing continuing medical education opportunities at national meetings, establishing an Internet-based repository of recommendations for primary care providers, and forming a learning collaborative to link primary care providers and specialists to evaluate strategies to improve care. Workgroup members underscored the importance of assessing the impact of these interventions on the process and outcomes of health care delivery. The recommendations from this workshop were presented to the United States Secretary for Health and Human Services' Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children Subcommittee on Education and Training. The Subcommittee reviewed the report and put forth recommendations to the Committee, which were adopted by the Committee in September 2009.