The COVID pandemic will have lasting effects on all of us on so many levels. Although encouraging news of progressing vaccination campaigns and decreasing transmission rates help all of us to grasp a glimmer of light and hope, we must continue our combined efforts to protect and support each other through these trying times.

While the annual gathering of our Canadian Medical Genetics community will not be achievable in person again this year,  the CCMG is excited to provide an opportunity for members to connect and interact through its first virtual Scientific meeting from May 31 to June 3, 2021. The CCMG 45^th Annual Scientific Meeting program was planned to address both educational and human exchange needs, with diversified scientific sessions, presentations by renowned speakers as well as some of our upcoming and rising stars (Fellows in training) and virtual social gathering opportunities. Please check out the program for details on sessions and registration, and don’t forget to look for opportunities to connect with our sponsors, whose generous support allows us to maintain reasonable registration fees.

Social sessions will provide entertainment and opportunity for our members to network. Why not think about creating new CCMG communities of practice based on common professional interests or scope of practice during these sessions!

We can take pride in the fact that despite the pandemic, many important projects came to completion during the Fall of 2020.

The ABMGG and CCMG completed an 18-month thorough review of their respective training programs and credentialing requirements. This led the two organizations to re-affirm and formalize through a new letter of understanding the recognition of accredited training equivalence for the purpose of credentialing between these two institutions. This is an important agreement, that facilitates the process of credentials recognition for individuals training through each of these organizations. Thank you to Dr Tracy Stockley, former CCMG president, for successfully leading these discussions with our colleagues, Dr. Miriam Blitzer, ABMGG CEO, and Dr Azra Ligon, ABMGG chair. The CCMG looks forward to a continued collaboration with the ABMGG on other mutually beneficial activities.

I also wish to highlight the central role of the Training committee in two important CCMG undertakings. The completion and launch of the CCMG Genetic and Genomic Diagnostics Training Guidelines, a combined training program supported by a very comprehensive  and clear training documentation in early 2020, was the perfect springboard to initiate another significant change in training practices, which was the transition of training documentation from a paper to an online format. The past and current chair of the Training committee, Dr Suzanne Demzuck and Dr Ryan Lamont, with the help of one of our promising CCMG GGD Fellow in training, Dr Tara Spence, worked with Resilience Software developers to establish a customized, mobile version of logbooks and ITERS, which will facilitate documentation of learning experiences and performance evaluation, as well as credentials review process.

Sincere thanks to Suzanne, Ryan and Tara and to our College manager, Ms. Colleen Fifield, who is working with program directors across the country to oversee the implementation of this new tool, which represents a considerable transition from prior CCMG training practices. Thank you as well to CCMG program directors, supervisors and Fellows in training for their very helpful and timely feedback and comments on the T-res platform functioning. This is a significant evolution for the College, its training centers and Fellows in training, that aims to align with the Royal College Competency by Design assessment framework.

— Dr. Isabelle De Bie, President, CCMG-CCGM
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Welcome to:

• Dr. Jessica Zambonin
• Dr. Caitlin Chang
• Dr. Natascia Anastasio
• Dr. Priya Bhola

Welcome as well to Dr. Ma’N H. Zawati  (LL.B., LL.M., Ph.D. (DCL)) whom some of you may already know as the Executive Director of the Centre of Genomics and Policy of the McGill University Health Centre. Dr. Zawati  is joining the CCMG as an Associate Affiliate member, and is already contributing his knowledge and expertise to some of the ongoing projects of the CCMG E2P2 committee

The Emeritus status is conferred by the A&N committee to CCMG members who:

• Are fully retired from medical genetics practice.
• Contributed to the CCMG community by actively serving on CCMG committees including Board for at least 15 years.

All past presidents of the CCMG as well as past recipients of the Founders’ Award for Career Achievement, the John L. Hamerton Service Award or the F. Clarke Fraser Award for Excellence in Mentorship and Teaching qualify for Emeritus status upon retirement from medical genetics practice.

Emeritus members may continue to sit on committees and have a vote, but are not required to pay annual membership fees.

Please reach out to the CCMG office if you would like to be considered for Emeritus status at " target="_blank" rel="noopener">

Dr. W. Gibson as the Region 1 representative.

Dr. Soghra Jougheh Doust (community-based representative) and Dr. Shailly Jain (Biochemical Genetics Representative) as the Canadian College of Medical Geneticists, Biochemical Genetics Representatives.

Thanks to all our amazing members who volunteered to contribute their talent and energy to the business of the College.

The Awards and Nominations Committee, under the leadership of Drs Patrick Frosk and David Skidmore, channeled these many talents towards the 2021 committee vacancies. Turn-over, for most committees, is in January.

Over the past six months our committees have been engaged and active.

Almost all our committees have completed reviews of their terms of references. This was a collective effort across the board to harmonize language and processes between committees.

Ethics, Education and Public Policy (E2P2) committee: completed and published “Points to Consider: Resuming Genetic Services in a Pandemic” in November 2020, in the Journal of Medical Genetics, the official journal of the CCMG. Access the full paper online through the CCMG website.

Working group on Fetal Exome: the board recently approved the CCMG Position Statement on Fetal Genome Wide Sequencing, which will be submitted for comments by the CCMG membership prior to submission for publication.

The Molecular Pathology working group is in the process of elaborating training modules to address the needs of clinical laboratory geneticists practicing in Molecular Pathology. Discussions are under way to partner with the Ontario Molecular Pathology Research Network to develop an online platform to host these modules.

The Clinical Practice Committee, in partnership with our colleagues of CAGC, will be undertaking a joint statement on Sponsored Genetic Testing.

Laboratory practice committee revised and re-affirmed several of the CCMG practice guidelines:

• CCMG Guidelines For Retention of: A) Cytogenetic Specimens and Genetic Records B) Molecular Specimens and Genetic Records
• Cytogenetic Analysis B: Recommendations for the Indications, Analysis and Reporting of Constitutional Specimens
• DNA Banking

E2P2 is overseeing the launch of the CCMG FIT community of practice.

As a reminder, as announced at the CCMG Annual General Meeting on June 17, 2020, the CCMG has discontinued the accreditation for laboratory and clinical service.

Due to COVID-19, the accreditation of several CCMG training sites were put on hold last year. With the updated accreditation process, as well as a switch to virtual site visits, the accreditation of training sites will resume this year.  For those sites that were put on hold last year, the chair of the accreditation committee will be in touch shortly with a proposed date for the initiation of the accreditation renewal process.