Novel delivery models to meet the demand for genetics services in primary care

Jason Vassy, MD, MPH, MS is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and clinician-investigator at the Veterans Affairs (VA) Boston Healthcare System. He is a practicing primary care internist and researcher in the implementation and evaluation of genomic medicine interventions. For the last decade, he has directed the Genomes2Veterans Research Program at VA Boston, where his research examines the clinical utility of genetic and genomic testing in various primary care clinical contexts, including clinical trials of pharmacogenetic testing, polygenic risk score testing, and return of unanticipated genetic results. 

Kopika Kuhathaas is a Board Eligible Genetic Counselor. She holds a Master of Science in Genetic Counseling from the MGH Institute of Health Professions and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Waterloo. Kopika’s graduate thesis project examined clinicians' perspectives and their approaches to managing direct-to-consumer genetic testing in their practice. She has worked with a number of research programs, such as the Undiagnosed Diseases Network, where she contributed to various projects and provided compassionate support to participants with rare diseases and their families. Kopika is passionate about improving equitable access to genetic testing and services.

Mylynda B. Massart, MD, PhD, is a board-certified Family Medicine physician at UPMC, and associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the founder and Medical Director of the UPMC Primary Care Precision Medicine clinic, and as the Associate Director of Clinical Services for the Institute for Precision Medicine. Dr. Massart is a core director at the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CSTI). Dr. Massart serves as one of the co-Investigators for the All of US Pennsylvania research project working on community education and engagement and as MPI of The Community Engagement Alliance Consultative Resource (CEACR).

Dr. Pamela Ganschow is the Director of the Cancer Prevention and Survivorship program at the University of Illinois Cancer Center in Chicago transitioning to her position there in March of 2021 after 23 years on faculty at Cook County Health. She is an oncogeneralist who trained in internal medicine at Northwestern University and now focuses her clinical care and research primarily on cancer along the continuum of care from prevention and screening through survivorship. She has dedicated her professional life to work in cancer control research and education, building innovative programs that enable equitable, high-quality access to cancer screening and prevention services for underserved populations with a recent focus on embedding cancer survivorship and cancer genetic services into the primary care space.

Adam Buchanan is Associate Professor and Chair of the Geisinger Department of Genomic Health, an NIH-funded investigator, and board-certified and licensed genetic counselor with 20 years of research experience in assessing genetic counseling outcomes and risk management behaviors. He has clinical expertise in genetic counseling among, and genomic screening for, individuals at increased risk of hereditary cancer, inherited cardiovascular disease and other genetic conditions. Further, he is a master’s trained behavioral scientist and has completed mentored training in implementation science methodology at the National Cancer Institute. Mr. Buchanan is on the leadership group of the MyCode Genomic Screening and Counseling program, which conducts population screening for clinically actionable genetic disease risk.

Dr. Hull is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Havard Medical School and clinician-investigator in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).  Her research focuses on designing, implementing, and testing approaches to bring genomic medicine to the front lines of clinical care to improve disease risk prediction and personalize clinical decision-making.  Clinically, she is a practicing primary care physician and also serves as Clinical Director of the MGH Preventive Genetic Counseling Service, which offers expedited genetic counseling for common guideline-concordant preventive genetics questions (e.g. obtaining breast cancer susceptibility testing, arranging for preconception carrier screening).