Genetic counseling in industry settings: Opportunities in the era of precision health

Abstract

The skill sets of genetic counselors are strongly utilized in industry, as evidenced by 20% of genetic counselors reporting employment within industry in 2016. In addition, industry genetic counselors are expanding their roles, taking on new responsibilities, and creating new opportunities. These advances have impacted the profession as a whole including, but not limited to, genetic counseling training curricula, a shift back to genetic counseling directly to patients, and a growing influence of genetic counselors on industry test offerings. Industry genetic counselors and training programs are working together to address the challenges and opportunities presented by workforce changes and novel interpretations of how genetic counselors' core competencies can be utilized. Counseling of patients by industry genetic counselors has become more commonplace and addresses a need for alternate service delivery models. Industry genetic counselors often provide significant contributions to test development, education, marketing, and interpretation. Beyond these broad examples, individual industry genetic counselors have created unique niches for themselves, using their genetic counseling training combined with unique opportunities offered through industry, as illustrated by genetic counselors' various roles and responsibilities highlighted here.

Facing the challenge of genetic counselors' need for rapid continuing education about genomic technologies

“…The last several decades have seen an explosion in new and emerging genomic technologies (Cunha, ; Galas & McCormack, ) making the need for continuing education for genetic counselors a constant and difficult task. Additionally, the past decade has seen an unprecedented expansion in roles of genetic counselors outside of the traditional patient‐counselor clinical role to settings such as laboratory, research, marketing, insurance, and bioinformatics (Christian, Lilley, Hume, Scott, & Somerville, ; McWalter et al, ; Radford, Prince, Lewis, & Pal, ; Swanson, Ramos, & Snyder, ; Wain, ; Zetzsche, Kotzer, & Wain, ). In fact, it is anticipated that genetic counselors will sit on the frontline of precision health given that genetic counseling ‘is technology‐driven and an individual‐centered approach, exactly the same properties of what is now called “precision medicine”’ (Bamshad, Magoulas, & Dent, ).…”

Genetic counseling job market in the United States and Canada: An analysis of job advertisements 2014–2016

“…Furthermore, when thinking about the apparent increase in openings for jobs that counsel patients, one must also consider the possibility of newer hybrid, or blended, jobs. In other words, the increasing percentage of job openings for roles that involve counseling patients could be due to an increase in industry positions that have patient interaction (McWalter et al, ). As genetic testing companies expand, the importance of offering genetic counseling services as a component of their business model may be increasing this demand.…”

The gendered pay gap in genetic counseling

“…It is possible that non‐direct patient care roles embody more masculine values, shifting the identity away from that of a ‘helping’ profession. Though genetic counselors in non‐direct patient care roles utilize many of the same skills as their colleagues in direct patient care positions, the focus of their scope of practice moves away from an emphasis on psychosocial counseling (McWalter et al, ), which may impact external views of ‘helping’ characteristics. Additionally, there may be less formality or organizational structure in commercial non‐direct patient care positions compared to direct patient care positions where genetic counselors may be assigned a ‘salary band’ of, for example, Genetic Counselors I, II, or III depending on years of experience and other factors.…”