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Guest DancingDoc

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Guest DancingDoc

I was wondering what a medical geneticist actually does? Obviously they deal with genetics disorders, but as a doctor what responsibilities do they have. Like do they have oncall (if so for what?), do they work mainly in a lab setting, do they see patients much? Any information along that line would be great. I'm just curious because genetical disorders are so interesting, but working in a lab without call and patient contact would not be what I would want as a doctor (This is hoping I get in this year of course....).

 

(moderators I was not sure where to put this so feel free to move it)

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Guest ploughboy

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Hey there,

 

The only medical geneticist I know of is one of the instructors here at UWO. I keep meaning to do an observership with her, but like so many things in life it just hasn't happened yet...

 

I don't believe she has any call responsibilities, but she certainly has a lot of patient contact. One of the big things she does is genetic counselling, I think mostly with expectant couples. It seems like the sort of specialty where you have to be really really good at breaking bad news...

 

Based on comments made by the patients she brought in to talk with us (who absolutely adored her, by the way), I think she also does follow-up during the first years/decades of life of any children born with genetic disorders.

 

That's all I know, sorry...Have you checked out McMastergirl's ongoing thread(1) on the subject?

 

pb

 

 

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(1) McMastergirl's thread.

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Guest Kirsteen

Hi there,

 

Likewise, the Clinical Genetics group that I know here at UofC are well loved by their patients. The folks who I know here who are focused on the clinical (as opposed to research) are all based at the Children's Hospital and, as mentioned above, seem to focus their efforts on families coping with decision-making or management surrounding a genetic diagnosis.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

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The medical geneticist you're referring to, ploughboy, I THINK does do call...maybe not a lot but I think there's some.

 

Last semester there was an interesting case of ambiguous genetalia in a newborn (we were told about the case in PCL) where I BELIEVE (i'm not 100% certain) she was paged right after delievery....for the parents' benefit, I'm sure.

 

I could be totally wrong that she was paged, but I was under the impression that she came in for a consult.

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Guest DancingDoc

Do they deal at all with "treatments" (I'm guessing in many cases there is not much to be done anyway though), or is this mainly left to the primary caregiver?

 

By the way Ploughboy thanks for the link to McMastergirl's thread.... I always forgot to do a search for stuff like that!

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Guest marbledust
Like do they have oncall (if so for what?), do they work mainly in a lab setting, do they see patients much?

 

The medical geneticists at the Alberta Childrens' Hospital in Calgary do indeed take call. I am speaking from a very brief shadowing experience in first year meds, so I admittedly have very little knowledge. Like other doctors, they take call for emergencies their patients may experience or emergent consults from other services. Echoing what others have said, the two med geneticists I shadowed were just fabulous docs adored by patients and families.

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Guest McMastergirl

I am a medical genetics resident at Ottawa... please check out my thread!

 

To answer the call question... during residency call is "home call" for genetics. I just finished a rotation in genetics and I did 10 days of call, and I was called in only once. It was a Saturday morning around 7 a.m.... a baby was born by emergency C-section with a skeletal dysplasia. The child was found to have short, bowed long bones on prenatal ultrasound, and one of the genetics staff had been following the parents throughout pregnancy. The diagnosis was unclear because there are like, a MILLION types of disorders that can present with this. Lots of them are fatal in the perinatal period. Once the baby was born we examined him, ordered a skeletal survey and chromosome analysis, and advised which other specialists should see the baby while in hospital. This is the type of "genetic emergency" we tend to get - babies with expected or unexpected congenital anomalies. It is actually quite urgent if you think about it... for the parents and child. We also get called to see aborted fetuses. This is not "urgent" in a life-threatening sense, but is semi-urgent in a psychosocial sense for the family.

 

As for patient contact... read my thread on medical genetics... we spend as much time with patients as any pediatrician or internist does. We spend zero time in the lab, unless we are keen on doing bench research!

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Guest DancingDoc

Good to know!! Definitely was the exact opposite of the answer I was expecting, so I am pleasantly surprised :)

Thanks for the information, and by the way your thread on your residency is really interesting and helpful, I really enjoyed reading it. I wish more people posted experiences like that as it is so useful for figuring out the realities of all the different specialties.

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