The Global State of the Genetic Counseling Profession.

Abacan M1, Alsubaie L2, Barlow-Stewart K3, Caanen B4, Cordier C5, Courtney E6, Davoine E7, Edwards J8, Elackatt NJ9, Gardiner K10, Guan Y11, Huang LH12,13, Malmgren CI14,15,16,17, Kejriwal S18, Kim HJ19, Lambert D20, Lantigua-Cruz PA21, Lee JMH22, Lodahl M23, Lunde Å24, Macaulay S25, Macciocca I26, Margarit S27, Middleton A28,29, Moldovan R30, Ngeow J6, Obregon-Tito AJ31, Ormond KE32,33, Paneque M34, Powell K35, Sanghavi K36, Scotcher D37, Scott J38, Juhé CS39, Shkedi-Rafid S40, Wessels TM41, Yoon SY42,43,22, Wicklund C44.

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Abstract

The profession of genetic counseling (also called genetic counselling in many countries) began nearly 50 years ago in the United States, and has grown internationally in the past 30 years. While there have been many papers describing the profession of genetic counseling in individual countries or regions, data remains incomplete and has been published in diverse journals with limited access. As a result of the 2016 Transnational Alliance of Genetic Counseling (TAGC) conference in Barcelona, Spain, and the 2017 World Congress of Genetic Counselling in the UK, we endeavor to describe as fully as possible the global state of genetic counseling as a profession. We estimate that in 2018 there are nearly 7000 genetic counselors with the profession established or developing in no less than 28 countries.