When I first started volunteering on the Practice Guidelines Committee (PGC) in 2014, the overarching emotion I felt was being overwhelmed. The Committee was in the middle of creating a new process and policy manual for the development of guidelines within NSGC. We were working to meet rigorous literature review standards and grading systems to ensure our guidelines were evidence-based. Over time, the emotion changed to excitement when the first author groups were brought together to execute within our new process and policies. At that time, I was appointed liaison to two of the first author groups. These groups were brought together with incredible intentionality to create teams to conduct systematic evidence reviews (SERs). The author groups navigated the steps involved in SERs with the hopes of gathering research that supported guideline creation.
Participating as a member of an author group and a PGC member liaison supporting them is a unique volunteer experience. Authorship requires a long term commitment, sometimes taking years, and a team-based approach, which allows volunteers to combine their clinical and research expertise, and writing skills. Authors and many PGC liaisons get to see the entire practice guideline process from idea generation to product distribution in the form of publication. With this background, I hope we can celebrate the significant amount of time, energy, and expertise required by the Practice Guidelines Committees and author groups to produce these important resources - among the first to be produced using our new(ish) process. These publications are often the highest cited and most frequently used in practice by genetic counselors and other healthcare providers. These new guidelines will expand access for patients to quality genetic services, by supporting genetic counselors using telehealth to deliver services, building sex and gender inclusivity in pedigree nomenclature, and informing the use of expanded carrier screening in the clinic.
Please check out these new, important member resources that were recently published in the Journal of Genetic Counseling and share them within your networks as relevant:
Interested in being a part of the PGC, which also supports practice resource development? It is possible to join the PGC as a member and also author a practice guideline or practice resource. The Call for Volunteers for this and all other NSGC committees is open until October 3, 2022.
Call for Applicants: Journal of Genetic Counseling Editor-in-Chief
NSGC is also recruiting for an Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Genetic Counseling. The journal “focuses on the critical questions and problems that arise at the interface between rapidly advancing technological developments and the concerns of individuals and communities at genetic risk.” The new Editor will serve from January 2024 - December 2028 and must possess the energy and vision to sustain and further develop the Journal as a leading forum in genetic counseling, delivering timely and accurate information to this and related topics. For more details of the role, please read the full description here.
Heather Zierhut, PhD, MS, CGC is the current President of the National Society of Genetic Counselors. Outside of her work with NSGC, Heather is a professor in the Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development in the College of Biological Sciences at the University of Minnesota.