title: European registration process for Clinical Laboratory Geneticists in genetic healthcare.
abstract: Tremendous progress in genetics and genomics led to a wide range of healthcare providers, genetic tests, and more patients who can benefit from these developments. To guarantee and improve the quality of genetic testing, a unified European-based registration for individuals qualified in biomedicine was realized. Therefore a Europe-wide recognition of the profession 'European registered Clinical Laboratory Geneticist (ErCLG)' based on a syllabus of core competences was established which allows for harmonization in professional education. The 'European Board of Medical Genetics division - Clinical Laboratory Geneticist' provides now since 3 years the possibility to register as an ErCLG. Applicants may be from all European countries and since this year also from outside of Europe. Five subtitles reflect the exact specialty of each ErCLG, who can reregister every 5 years. A previously not possible statistics based on ~300 individuals from 19 countries as holders of an ErCLG title provides interesting insights into the professionals working in human genetics. It could be substantiated that there are around twice as many females than males and that a PhD title was achieved by 80% of registered ErCLGs. Also most ErCLGs are still trained as generalists (66%), followed by such ErCLGs with focus on molecular genetics (23%); the remaining are concentrated either on clinical (6%), tumor (4%) or biochemical genetics (1%). In conclusion, besides MDs and genetic counselors/nurses an EU-wide recognition system for Clinical Laboratory Geneticist has been established, which strengthens the status of specialists working in human genetic diagnostics in Europe and worldwide.
authors.affiliation: Jena University Hospital, Friedrich Schiller University, Institute of Human Genetics, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liehr
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cytogenetics and Genomics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.|Research Centre for Environment, Genetics and Oncobiology, Coimbra, Portugal.
authors.forename: Isabel M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Carreira
authors.affiliation: Hacettepe University School of Medicine, Department of Medical Genetics, Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Dilek
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Aktas
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Egbert
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bakker
authors.affiliation: Genetics Service, Fundacion Jimenez Diaz-IIS, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodríguez de Alba
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Human Genetics, E.O. Ospedali Galliera, Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Domenico A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Coviello
authors.affiliation: Alfalab, Molecular Biology and Cytogenetics Center, Leto Maternity Hospital, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Lina
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Florentin
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Genetics, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Scheffer
authors.affiliation: Croatian Institute of Brain Research, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rincic
mesh_terms: D064790:Clinical Laboratory Services / Q000592:standards*; D003406:Credentialing / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D005062:European Union; D005826:Genetics, Medical / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D017056:Medical Laboratory Personnel / Q000592:standards*; D000078329:Workforce