遺伝相談室と遺伝カウンセリング

Genetic research has advanced rapidly which has enabled us to identify diseases in their early stages, making it easier to accurately predict the prognosis. On the other hand, public alarm is increasing with regard to ethical, legal and social issues. To alleviate and improve this situation, it is necessary to ensure that medical professionals have the relevant training and expertise in order to allay any public fears. For these reasons, the genetic counselling room was opened at Tokushima University Hospital. A Doctor and a Nurse are available for counselling every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. To date they have dealt with 50 cases which were based on various reasons and they encountered no major problems. To deliberate any matters in various aspects and prevent trouble, we make it a rule to decide anything by staff conference. To level up staff, we have performed study sessions. Furthermore, to raise our public profile, we have opened a homepage on the web and issued a brochure. With the expectation that genetic research will certainly advance and subsequently the necessity for counselling will also increase, it is necessary to continue developing our counselling system.