November 2022

It is with great pleasure and honor that I serve as the President of the Canadian College of Medical Geneticists for 2022-2024. Our college has a rich history, a strong community and an even brighter future.  I look forward to sharing this journey with you and continuing to strengthen our collective choir as “the voice of medical genetics in Canada”.

As we come towards the end of 2022, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the previous and coming year and thank all of our members who have worked tirelessly to serve our Community.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the CCMG-CCGM Board of Directors (Drs. Oana Caluseriu, Lindsay Brown, Sarah Dyack, Graham Sinclair, Mary Ann Thomas, Ron Agatep, and Victoria Siu) and Management team (Colleen Fifield, Meredith Slack, Amanda Farlinger and Meryem Crockett) for their continued dedication and service.  I would also like to give a special thanks to two exceptional leaders, Drs. Isabelle DeBie and Beth Spriggs, who recently finished their terms on the Board of Directors but continue to inspire ongoing initiatives.  With their support the Board has advanced projects that enhance training programs and continued professional development, encouraged the formation of new working groups to address critical topics effecting our community and established new collaborations with the goal of enhancing genomic literacy in healthcare.

Despite an ongoing global pandemic, and both environmental and political turmoil at home and abroad, CCMG-CCGM members have continued to show resilience, flexibility, and resourcefulness to ensure that our College remains impactful. I cannot send enough gratitude to our many committee volunteers and members who continue to contribute their time and expertise to ensure successful training programs and fair accreditation, examination and credentialing processes.  It is also with extreme gratitude that I thank our volunteers who have contributed to the broad range of continued professional development programming and guideline/policy development over the last year. Through your dedication the CCMG-CCGM celebrated several accomplishments in 2022 and continues to develop programming, including but not limited to:

• The first group of Genetic and Genomic Diagnostics (merged molecular genetic and cytogenetic) trainees have successfully completed their training, with many more now registered in the training program.
• A working group has been established to facilitate ongoing evaluation of the new Genetic and Genomic Diagnostics training program.
• Clinical and laboratory biochemical training are being revised to ensure that our training programs are up-to-date and consistent with training formats of other programs.
• A working group is being formed to evaluate and make recommendations to update the CCMG-CCGM clinical genetics fellowship training guidelines.
• Due to ongoing pandemic-related travel concerns the Examinations Committee again modified exams to permit written formats. Exams were subsequently administer in early June at 13 national and international sites.  (Congratulations go to all of the trainees who successfully completed the exams!)
• Through committed evaluation of applications by the Credentials Committee, 17 new fellows have been welcomed to the CCMG-CCGM, with more to follow in November pending final credentials review. (Please join me in welcoming all of the new Fellows!)
• Applications for CCMG-accreditation of centers continue to be streamlined.  Processes are also being considered to best ensure that accreditation evaluations occur ‘at arm’s length’.
• A Readiness Assessment was submitted to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada for consideration of the CCMG-CCGM as a Royal College accredited continuing professional development (CPD) provider. Revisions are pending and an application for accreditation is anticipated in Spring 2023.
• Development of continued professional development programming is ongoing including continued support of TeleGraf and Leading Strand seminars.
• The 2022 Virtual Scientific Meeting was extremely successful with numerous insightful and thought provoking sessions.  We are delighted that 196 individuals were able to attend the conference.  (Please block your calendar to join us in-person for an exciting Scientific Program in Winnipeg, June 18-23, 2023!)
• We are collaborating with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to develop joint scientific sessions and explore other alternative projects to support genetics training and translation of genomic information in to clinical practice.
• Ongoing development of a Molecular Pathology Training Module in collaboration with the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR).
• Completed documents including 1) practice guidelines for somatic BRCA1/2 testing, 2) a position statement regarding genetic and metabolic investigation for neurodevelopment disorders, 3) Cytogenetic guidelines.
• Ongoing document development related to sponsored genetic testing, reproductive carrier screening, duty to re-contact, prenatal and postnatal testing for uniparental disomy, and others.

Thank you also to everyone who participated in the CCMG-CCGM 2022 Strategic Initiatives and Professional Development Needs Survey.  We appreciate your feedback and are looking forward to reviewing the responses so that we can best design programming to support your needs.  If you missed the opportunity to take the survey, but still want to provide feedback about strategic initiatives or CPD programming, then written feedback can be provided through the email or directly to the CCMG CPD committee.

Enjoy the fall and holiday seasons. I look forward to working with you over the next several months.

Kindest regards,
Elizabeth (Liz) McCready, PhD, FCCMG

New CCMG Fellows

Biochemical (Clinical)

• Amira Mobarak
• Laura Guilder
• Mehdi Yeganeh
• Mahmoud Almutadares
• Shaymaa Shurrab
• Gurnoor Lail
• Estrella Lizbeth Mellin Sanchez
• Haifa Alzahrani

Biochemical (Laboratory)

• Michelle Siu

Cytogenetics

• Karen Bedard

Molecular

• Amanda Tyndall
• Yoko Ito
• Natascia Anastasio
• Jean-Baptiste Riviere
• Farshad Niri
• Sali Farhan
• Leora Witkowski

Accreditation of Training (2 positions)
Awards & Nominations (2 positions)
Credentials (2 positions)
E2P2 (2 positions)
Metabolics (2 positions)
Training (1 position)

If you are interested in one or more of these committees, please take a moment to complete a volunteer submission form HERE.

Deadline to apply to volunteer will be November 30th.

Simply go to CCMG | CCGM Home – CCMG | CCGM (ccmg-ccgm.org) and choose login. A window will open offering you to renew.

Please reach out to the CCMG office with the following if you need to register with the Royal College:

• Full name
• MD and year of MD
• Address
• Email address

Details on the CCMG-CCGM Awards can be found HERE.

We are looking for nominations for 4 awards:
Founders Award for Career Achievement
John L. Hamerton Service Award
F. Clarke Fraser Award for Excellence in Mentorship and Teaching
CCMG Genetic and Genomic Medicine Innovation Award

All nominations should be made by regular or Emeritus members of the College and must include a recent curriculum vitae of the nominee and at least two letters of support.

Nominations are accepted at any time but must be received before the closing date announced by the CCMG management office to be considered for the awards presented at the next annual conference of the College; nominations received after the closing date will be considered for the awards presented at the following annual conference. Nominees not selected for the awards may be considered by the Awards and Nominations Committee, along with new applications, in subsequent year(s).

The closing date for nominations for the 2023 Awards will be Friday, December 16, 2022.

Send your nominations to .

The Linda Stevens Fund was established to further the training of candidates in a CCMG Fellowship in one of the accredited genetic centres or residents in Royal College Medical Genetics training programs by participating in conferences, attending short courses or workshops, or undertaking training at other genetics centres. Once per year, the Awards and Nominations Committee will evaluate requests for stipends from the fund made by trainees (RCPSC & CCMG) in accredited genetics centres.

Please see the application form for specifics regarding eligibility and application requirements.

Deadline is December 16, 2022 for funding of activities taking place from January 1 to December 31 of the following year.