Ob.Gyns. Ill Prepared for Future Genetic Testing.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. -- As gynecologists increasingly take on the role of primary care providers, genetics screening and testing are going to fall into their purview, and tomorrow's graduates aren't likely to be prepared, Dr. Charles J. Macri said.

Prompted by the recent release of the human genome project's massive sequencing report, several experts responsible for training future ob.gyns. eyed their current genetics curriculum with some anxiety at the annual meeting of the Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics.

"By the time students starting medical school today are through their ob.gyn. residency programs, there will be genetic tests to help predict the risk of at least a dozen conditions," said Dr. Macri of Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Md.

Future obstetric patients are going to be requesting sophisticated genetic tests for their fetuses. A fetus with a genetically determined disorder may be treated in utero. Gynecology patients will have their own battery of genetic screening tests and pharmacogenetic therapies to identify susceptibility to and prevention of the onset of conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and thrombophilia.

"Assessing genetic risks for our individual patients is going to be extremely important," Dr. Macri said.

But today, most medical schools devote just 24 hours of curriculum time to teaching clinical and basic science genetics, noted Dr. Gabriel M. Cohn, chief of clinical and reproductive genetics in the department of ob.gyn. at Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, Mass.

In 1997, the Institute of Medicine looked at the provision of genetics training and ...