Assessment of physician preparedness for implementation of pathology-supported genetic testing: solution-driven post-COVID-19 survey Article Swipe

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Preparedness Personalized medicine Medicine Genetic testing Genomics Health care Genetic counseling Precision medicine Personal genomics Family medicine Pathology Bioinformatics Genome Biology Internal medicine Economic growth Genetics Gene Economics Law Biochemistry Political science

Elouise E. Kroon , Yolandi Swart , Chantelle Jennifer Scott , Denise Scholtz , Daniel Wilhelm Olivier , Kelebogile E. Moremi , Chantelle Venter , Maxine Waters , Sunday O. Oladejo , Craig Kinnear , Etheresia Pretorius , Kanshukan Rajaratnam , Desiree C. Petersen , Marlo Möller , Maritha J. Kotze ·

YOU? · · 2025 · Open Access · · DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2025.1543056 · OA: W4408695845

Introduction Rapid advances in personalized medicine and direct-to-consumer genomic applications could increase the risk that physicians will apply genomic results inappropriately. To address a persistent lack of understanding of genomics, we implemented a pathology-supported genetic testing (PSGT) approach, guided by insights from a clinician needs assessment conducted in 2010. Methods Findings from the previous clinician survey were used to develop a new patient screening tool that integrates non-communicable disease (NCD) and post-COVID-19 care pathways. In parallel to the application of this solution for stratification of patients in different treatment groups, an updated version of the original survey questionnaire was used to reassess the knowledge and willingness of healthcare professionals to apply PSGT. Results Thirty-six respondents completed the revised needs assessment survey in October 2022, while attending a genomics session at the Annual General Practitioner Congress, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Nearly 89% of the respondents reported having insufficient knowledge to offer genetic testing; 80% were supportive of using PSGT to differentiate inherited from lifestyle- or therapy-associated NCDs and 83.3% supported integrating wellness screening with genetic testing to identify high-risk individuals. Discussion It appears that while clinicians are interested in learning about genomics, they continue to report significant knowledge deficits in this area, highlighting the need for targeted clinician training and tools like multidisciplinary NCD-COVID pathway analysis to improve clinical decision-making. The co-development of a genomic counseling report for ongoing studies, guided the selection of Long COVID patients for whole-genome sequencing across the illness and wellness domains.