Involving the European National Human Genetics Societies

The purpose

In order to foster the progress of human genetics progress in Europe, it was proposed to stimulate reciprocal sharing of knowledge and to strengthen the relations between the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) and the different European National Human Genetics Societies (NHGSs).

The decision

The ESHG board discussed the idea at the 2005 European Human Genetics Conference in Prague and agreed that it was important to proceed to build stronger links among the European National Human Genetics Societies. This would increase collaboration through discussing themes of common interest, establish a forum that could handle national politics arising in transnational matters, and increase the visibility of human genetics all around Europe. The Board therefore appointed Pier Franco Pignatti to convene a first ESHG-NHGSs meeting, and allocated a budget for inviting the Presidents of the European Human Genetics Societies before the next ESHG conference, in 2006.

The first (start-up) meeting: Brussels Airport 2005

The names and addresses of various representatives were collected with a significant contribution from the EUROGENTEST Project which provided an initial list of the Societies to be contacted, and helped with the local arrangements at the venue (the Sheraton Hotel, Brussels Airport), where the meeting was held on 12 September 2005. Representatives from 25 NHGS attended. Their countries are indicated schematically in the map shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

The attendance at the first meeting of the European Human Genetics Societies, Brussels 2005. Representatives from 25 National Societies were present as indicated on the map.

The agenda included a short presentation from each of the national societies representatives, a welcome speech by the ESHG President Professor Andres Metspalu, a review of potential themes of common interest, and proposals on how the European societies could coordinate some activities and encourage the sharing of reciprocal knowledge. Other issues included in the agenda were an update on the progress of the ESHG request for an EU specialty in medical/clinical genetics, a presentation of the EU project on genetic testing, and discussion on continuing medical education and human genetics education in the EU. To improve and accelerate communication among EU HG National Societies there were suggestions for direct website links with a common English format, among the societies and with the ESHG.

It was felt by all present that the meeting was successful, and it was proposed to have regular meetings of the representatives, who would be nominated by the respective National Societies during their annual conferences.

The proceedings of the meeting are available on the ESHG website (www.eshg.org, under the opening page headline ‘Genetics in Europe’).

The second meeting: ESHG Conference 2006 in Amsterdam

An effort was made to reach other Societies for which no initial contact had been available, and 31 NHGS were represented at the second meeting. The ESHG itself was very well represented there, with almost its complete Executive Board present, once again showing their interest in networking activities. Updates on the EU specialty request, EUROGENTEST activities, and education in human genetics for geneticists and for non-geneticists were also presented and discussed.

It was proposed that the person representing his/her National Society should be nominated for a three to 5-year term in order to facilitate reciprocal knowledge and relations. It was decided that the ESHG would include a link on its website for the websites for each of the European NHGS to best keep the information updated, and the common format, in English, for all the societies’ websites was finally approved.

Follow-up and conclusions

At the Nice ESHG conference in 2007 (Figure 2) a report on the questionnaires compiled from 36 national societies was presented (Table 1).

Figure 2

Group picture of the participants at the third NHGSs meeting, Nice 2007. Kindly provided by Professor Andres Metspalu.

Table 1 National human genetic societies in Europe

At the Barcelona ESHG conference in 2008 the Board decided to strengthen ties with the NHGS by offering fellowships for participants at the annual ESHG conference with abstracts from each of the National Societies, from which 22 proposals were received overall.

Meetings were from then held on every year during the annual ESHG conference, providing a forum where the national issues could be discussed and harmonized into a common European perspective. Topics relevant to all societies were discussed, such as quality assurance and laboratory accreditation, medical/clinical genetics recognition as a EU specialty, specific and competence-oriented training for genetic counseling, core competencies in genetics for health professionals in Europe, free exchange of candidates for the specialization, and many others.

In conclusion, we are happy to see the establishment of a strong European Human Genetics National Societies network, which has been successful in fostering collaboration, education, and research in human genetics across many European countries and beyond.