| Through our daily professional life, we all grapple with the rapid pace of the advancements in our field in parallel with the substantial challenges patients and their families as well as our public healthcare system experience. This year, The World Health Organization has proposed a resolution in support of the recognition of rare diseases as a global health priority for equity and inclusion. While Canada is sadly not one of the signatories at this time, such framing of a multifaceted and marginalized issue, creates momentum for a global alignment based on evidence but also our humanity. We are hopeful that acknowledging our own national context, Canada will give priority to our patients, and many families that live with a rare disorder in our country by engaging with these global efforts.
With the impetus of the new spring, CCMG has started to look into a new season for medical genetics: Therapeutics. While a common practice for the area of inborn errors of metabolism, for general genetics, the advent of therapeutics, in particular gene therapies, may feel daunting and exciting at the same time, raising puzzling ethical issues and personal and organizational professional questions. On June 6, our symposium brought together an international array of practitioners in the area, and educators to tackle the ups and downs of this new wave of change in our field. It marked a first collaboration with The Canadian Rare Diseases Network (CRDN) and RareKids-CAN. There were 174 participants with a large majority expressing appreciation for this format of updates for the membership.
Soon after, we had another online Annual General Meeting to allow a wider membership access. The seventy-three participants were informed on a potpourri of activities completed over the past year, including our prioritized focus in months ahead: the examination reform. The exam committees are well into reorganizing the new examination content utilizing the recently acquired software and the expertise of the psychometric company hired by CCMG. Next spring will mark the final in person OSLE as well as the last individual exams for the cytogenetics and molecular specialties.
The scientific committee is in the advanced stages of preparation for the joint annual conference with The Canadian Association of Genetic Counselors (CAGC), first such endeavor after many years of hiatus. We are looking forward to meeting in person in the iconic Canadian Rockies landscape to debate the present and future of our discipline. After an energizing summer, we hope to see many of you October 5-8 in Banff! |
