ACMG Joins CMSS in Statement Against Travel Barriers
ACMG would like to share with you the Council of Medical Specialty Societies’ (CMSS) position statement regarding the impact on international collaboration in medicine of the recent executive order suspending some foreign entry into the United States. It states in part that “Progress against disease will falter if the global community engaging together in medical care is divided by policies that bar members of certain nationalities from entering the United States to deliver patient care, conduct research, participate in medical education and engaged in scientific discourse.”
ACMG is one of thirty two medical societies that have signed the “CMSS Position on International Collaboration in Medicine.” The statement can be found here.
ACMG Celebrates 25th Anniversary and Looks Back on Contributions to the Field of Medical Genetics
In 2016, the College celebrated its Silver Anniversary. Activities were planned to commemorate ACMG’s 25th anniversary throughout the year including the presentation of a 25th Anniversary Timeline and the recognition of our Founding Fellows and past presidents at the Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida.
During the Annual Meeting in Tampa, we asked attendees, What Does ACMG Mean to You? One of the responses was, “ACMG means saving and improving lives every day.”
In our 25th Anniversary History Timeline, we highlighted milestones the College has accomplished over the past 25 years such as the establishment of the ACMG Foundation (1992), the first ACMG Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting in Orlando, FL (1994), the release of the first issue of ACMG’s peer-reviewed journal, Genetics in Medicine (1998), and the release of ACMG’s recommendations on the reporting of Secondary Findings (2013). These milestones are just a few of the many contributions ACMG has made to the practice of clinical and laboratory genetics since its inception.
As ACMG’s Silver Anniversary ends, we’d like to take this moment to thank all of our ACMG members. The vast accomplishments of the past 25 years could not have been possible without the help from our special interest groups, committee volunteers, workgroups, the Board of Directors, and last but not least our donors who have contributed to the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine including our Silver Anniversary Donors. We are proud of our 25-year legacy of translating genetic discoveries into better patient care, advocating for our profession and establishing best practices in genetic and genomic medicine.
We thank all of you for being part of this journey and we are extremely grateful to our Founding Fellows and all of our College presidents – here is to another 25 years!
ACMG Applauds Investment in Precision/Personalized Medicine
President Obama rolled out a plan on Jan. 30, 2015 to invest $215 million in "precision medicine". ACMG applauds this investment in genomic medicine and we look forward to providing input into the process moving forward as leaders in advancing the field of genetics and genomics into all of healthcare. President Obama said that precision or personalized medicine "gives us one of the greatest opportunities for new medical breakthroughs that we have ever seen." ACMG is already actively developing the standards by which genomic medicine will be practiced including practice guidelines for laboratories and clinicians and is partnered in the Clinical Genomics Resource (ClinGen) Project that is bringing the expertise of those trained in this field to the clinical curation of genomic variation based on data provided by clinical genetics and genomics service providers across the country. Read more about President Obama's Precision Medicine Initiative here.
ACMG thanks its members, Board and staff who work tirelessly on behalf of patients and families every day to make the promise of genomic medicine a reality in improving public health and in preventing and treating genetic diseases.
You can watch the White House video here on the Precision Medicine Initiative - note the actual press conference starts at around the 22:00 minute mark.
There has never been a more exciting time to be involved in genetic medicine and ACMG certainly will continue to play an important role in translating genetic discoveries into better patient care.
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ACMG Releases Member Survey Results on Secondary Findings and Reinforces Earlier Recommendations in New Policy Statement on Secondary Findings
The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) has released two documents "online ahead of print" in its peer-reviewed academic journal, Genetics in Medicine:
1. "American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) Policy Statement: Updated Recommendations Regarding Analysis and Reporting of Secondary Findings in Clinical Genome-Scale Sequencing"
2. "Reporting Genomic Secondary Findings: ACMG Members Weigh In".
Click here to access news release
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