A draft report from a federal advisory committee on genetics says that with the rapidly increasing knowledge of genetics, the nation has a serious deficiency in the number of healthcare professionals and consumers who are educated in that area.
One piece of the solution may be "just-in-time education" embedded in the electronic health record, according to a draft by the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society, a panel that advises the Department of Health and Human Services.
"This approach involves the EHR "˜understanding' where the provider is in the patient workflow so that when the query is executed the provider is taken to content that is highly likely to be relevant," it says.
The report points to trials in which answers to providers' questions were found faster with these embedded approaches as compared to standard electronic searches.
But it says that no rigorous studies have been done on whether these tools are effective in helping providers in "acquiring and retaining new knowledge that alters practice behavior."
The just-in-time learning has also been used with patients, it notes, including some approaches that involve breast cancer care or that help in genetic testing decisions.
The report also asserts that although the federal government and others have pushed for the use of family history tools, to make those best use of those instruments, EHRs must be able to accept that data provided by the consumer.
Among new pressures for genetic education for providers and others, the committee pointed to the possibility of $1000 genome sequencing for individuals in the near future and the potential for linking genomic data with EHRs.
The committee, which was formed in 2002, is made up of 17 people from around the nation with expertise relative to genetics and genetic technologies.
Comments on the draft are due by June 30.
