Sir

Recently, Burke and Emery1 addressed the need to educate primary-care physicians in genetic medicine. As the authors stated, most primary-care physicians have limited knowledge of genetics2,3. Yet, the ability of primary-care physicians to adopt new technologies in clinical settings, to accommodate a steep learning curve4 and to collaborate with consultants from other disciplines, provides a potentially powerful opportunity to educate and promote genetic medicine in primary care.

Sir David Weatherall stated “there is an urgent imperative to ensure appropriate incorporation of conceptual and practical elements of genetics and molecular medicine in undergraduate and postgraduate education. Links with primary care, and public health medicine will be fundamental in achieving full and equitable delivery of genetic services”5. Others, including Francis Collins of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), have made the promotion of genetic literacy in primary care a top priority6,7. As the authors posed, the most effective educational approach is to form partnerships with genetics professionals to promote “dialogue and encourage differing perspectives of the two areas of practice”1. To capture excellence in translational genetics, cross-institutional and transcontinental collaboration is often required. Although great investments have been made in developing curricula to educate physicians in the judicious use of genetic medicine in primary-care settings, few, if any, educational outcomes have been reported in the literature.

Given this background and challenge, the National Cancer Institute and the NHGRI sponsored 'Genetics in Primary Care: A Brown-Oxford Transatlantic Videoconference', which was co-hosted by the Department of Family Medicine at Brown Medical School and the Department of Primary Health Care at the University of Oxford. This one-day conference brought together a transdisciplinary team of general practitioners, clinical geneticists, genetic counsellors, genetic epidemiologists, behaviourists, oncologists and policy makers, from Brown, Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Case-Western Reserve Universities. A total of 110 registrants participated in an interactive session between London, England, United Kingdom, and Providence, Rhode Island, United States; these included medical students, residents, practicing physicians and policy makers from the NHGRI and the British National Health Service.

Pharmacogenetics in smoking cessation, cancer-risk communication, medical informatics, ethics and policy were addressed. Keynote speakers (Jon Emery, Cambridge University) and (David Hunter, Harvard University) outlined a vision of the future of translational genetics in primary care. Generalist scientists and educators found ample opportunity to share strategies for curricula relevant to primary care.

The conference was a stimulus for general practitioners to have a central role in the translation of genetic technology to medical education and practice, and facilitated the implementation of new curricula in primary-care genetics for our residents and medical students, Transatlantic curriculum development, and multiple grant-generating efforts. Finally, the success of the conference served as a model to quickly disseminate curricular and research innovations that we shall incorporate frequently in the years to come.