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Thirty-years of genetic counselling education in Europe: a growing professional area

European Journal of Human Genetics (2024)Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 11 March 2024

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Abstract

Genetic counselling education and training in Europe spans a continuum of 30 years. More master programs are opening due the demand for qualified genetic counselors. This report describes the evolution of training in Europe and the current state of genetic counselling training programs. Directors of master programs in Europe were invited to complete an online survey describing their program, including year of commencement, course duration, number of students and frequency of intake and number graduating. Results of the survey were presented at a closed meeting at the European Society of Human Genetics conference in 2022 along with a facilitated stakeholder engagement session in which 19 professionals participated to understand the challenges in delivering genetic counselling education in Europe. A total of 10 active programs exists in Europe with the first training program starting in 1992. The majority of training programs have a 2-year duration, with just over half of programs having an annual intake of students. Up to May 2022, 710 students have graduated from genetic counseling training programs across Europe. Of these, 670 students graduated from European Board of Medical Genetics-registered programs. Arranging clinical placements, clinical and counseling supervision of students, research collaboration for MSc research projects and incorporating genomics into the curriculum were identified as current challenges for genetic counseling education. Genetic counseling is still a developing profession in Europe and this historical and current view of the European genetic counselor pathways, allows for educational and professional standards to be examined as the profession evolves into the future.

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Fig. 1: Genetic counselling education in Europe.

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All data generated during this report can be found within the published article.

Change history

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all Master’s program directors of the European training programs that contributed to this study.

Funding

Authors received no funding for this study, however the EBMG have endorsed this work through facilitating collaboration meetings. The work of Andrada Ciucă was supported through the Starting Research Grant no 32968/23.06.2023 financed by the Babes-Bolyai University, and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 945151.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CGPP - Centro de Genética Preditiva e Preventiva, IBMC - Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    M. Paneque

  2. ICBAS - School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    M. Paneque

  3. Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Camperdown, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    R. O´Shea

  4. Cancer Genetic Service, St. James Hospital, Dublin, Ireland

    R. O´Shea

  5. GeneLinx GmbH, Berlin, Germany

    A. Narravula

  6. Western Norway Familial Cancer Center, Department of Medical Genetics, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway

    E. Siglen

  7. Department of Psychology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    A. Ciuca

  8. Department of Clinical and Molecular Genetics, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Barcelona, Spain

    A. Abulí

  9. Medicine Genetics Group Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), Barcelona, Spain

    A. Abulí

  10. Genetics Department, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Barcelona, Spain

    C. Serra-Juhé

  11. U705 CIBERER, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Enfermedades Raras (CIBERER), 28029, Madrid, Spain

    C. Serra-Juhé

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Contributions

Milena Paneque: contributed to conceptualization, project administration, data analysis, writing – original draft, review & editing. Rosie O´Shea: Data analysis, writing – original draft. Alekhya Narravula: data analysis and review & editing. Elen Siglen: data analysis and review & editing. Andra Ciuca: review & editing. Anna Abuli: data analysis writing – original draft, review & editing. Clara Serra-Juhé: data analysis, writing – original draft, review & editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Paneque.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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No ethical approval was required for this study but all participants consent the publication of the compiled data.

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The original online version of this article was revised: The following funding information was missing from this article. The work of Andrada Ciucă was supported through the Starting Research Grant no 32968/23.06.2023 financed by the Babes-Bolyai University, and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 945151. Moreover, “Thirty-year” should have been “Thirty-years” in the article title.

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Paneque, M., O´Shea, R., Narravula, A. et al. Thirty-years of genetic counselling education in Europe: a growing professional area. Eur J Hum Genet (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-024-01552-8

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