Syllabus

• Week 1

  Introduction to the course

  • Getting started

    Meet our team and learn more about our course.

  • Back to basics

    This Back to Basics section gives an overview of hereditary breast cancer syndromes and BRCA testing terminology

  • Why do we need to do mainstreaming of genetic testing?

    Dr Adila will help you decide why BRCA genetic testing is vital in your practice. When we identify individuals with higher cancer risk we can improve patient access to better treatment and risk management options.

  • Weekly wrap up

    Welcome to the start of the journey of not just learning but implementing mainstreaming genetic testing into your routine clinical practice.

• Week 2

  Mainstreaming BRCA testing

  • BRCA testing pathways

    Prof Aishah explains the difference between mainstreaming and traditional genetic testing pathways. Let us learn more about how to apply genetic testing into our routine cancer clinics.

  • Mainstreaming genetic testing

    Cancer clinicians like surgeons and oncologists can improve access to genetic testing, risk management and targeted therapies by adopting mainstreaming into our routine care.

  • Pre-test counselling and the consent process

    Genetic counselling is a daunting step to add to our routine cancer practice. What if we deconstruct the process? It will be difficult and time-consuming at first. But with practice comes ease!!

  • Ordering the genetic test

    In this video, Ms. Yoon will explain on how to choose the lab, types of sample, overcoming logistic challenges, interpreting technical BRCA lab results and understanding the limitations of the different genetic testing platform

  • Results disclosure and post-test counselling

    Cancer clinicians need to understand what BRCA test results mean. Remember that a BRCA negative test is not the same as having a negative result in other diagnostic tests.

  • Communication skills in mainstreaming genetic testing

    This section provides some tips for communicating effectively with your patients. Learn more about S.P.I.K.E.S. from Prof Aishah.

  • Medical records documentation

    This section provides tips on how to record sensitive genetic information into patient medical records.

  • Creating a supporting environment for mainstreaming

    You may feel overwhelmed about where to start. It is crucial to find a team and plan. Don't worry. We will go through the steps again in week 6.

  • Weekly wrap up

    Well done! You have completed week 2. We hope you can comfortably perform pre-test counselling, informed consent, result disclosure and post-test counselling.

• Week 3

  Basic genetics, family history and ethical, legal & social issues in counselling

  • Basic genetics

    Learn from the best! Prof Thong has been a pioneer in providing genetic counselling in cancer genetics for the last 20 years. He will ground us back to basic genetics and help us remember the genetics we learned in medical school.

  • The basics in taking a family history

    Dr Tae will help us understand the purpose of preparing and how to construct a pedigree with sufficient information.

  • Impact of genetic testing to the individual and the family

    Ms Rifhan will share how to do risk communication and how people perceive and communicate risk. Learn possible ways to overcome misunderstandings during genetic counselling.

  • Shared decision making in genetic testing

    This section gives the learners a grounding on shared decision-making in genetic testing.

  • Weekly wrap up

    Understanding the basic genetics, family history and Ethical, Legal & Social Issues in Counselling.

• Week 4

  Risk management and shared decision making in mainstreaming genetic testing

  • Cancer risk management

    This section will help learners learn about communicating the risks of future cancers and counsel BRCA patients and clients on the risk management of future cancers.

  • Shared decision making

    Shared decision-making (SDM) is vital in all aspects of care. In this activity, you would learn about the key components of SDM in risk management and the use of patient decision aids to facilitate this process.

  • Weekly wrap up

    Congratulations on completing week 4! I hope you were able to find the sections helpful. Different specialities usually perform risk management. The patient must receive logistic support from a staff member.

• Week 5

  Case scenarios

  • BRCA testing criteria

    These case scenarios will help you strengthen your understanding of the mainstreaming BRCA testing criteria.

  • Treatment with PARP inhibitors

    After knowing cancer/mainstreaming BRCA testing criteria, this section will help you understand the patient selection for parp inhibitors in the adjuvant and palliative setting.

  • Risk management

    This section will help learners understand the role of genetic testing and management in special populations.

  • Weekly wrap up

    We are almost done! Congratulations on completing week 5.

• Week 6

  Implementing a service

  • A guided action plan

    It is important to think through the following steps to start the mainstreaming genetic implementation process.

  • Creating a supporting environment to implement mainstreaming in your practice

    Many challenges are faced in the low and middle resource settings to provide genetic testing. To develop, implement and sustain a service, you need to identify the available resources. These resources may be internal or external.

  • Weekly wrap up

    Six weeks have gone by, we hope you enjoyed the course.

  • Course wrap up

    Thank you for your active participation! We hope you are now empowered to bring mainstreaming genetic testing and risk management into your routine clinical practice. Please provide us feedback for improvements.

Who will you learn with?