A government advisor says National Health Service physicians in the UK need to do some catching up on newer genetic techniques, according to the Telegraph.
Patrick Chinnery from the Medical Research Council says that advances in the field have moved so rapidly that doctors, particularly those over the age of 30, need more training in genetics and genomics. He further says that within a few years, having a grasp of genetic technology could be a requirement for re-licensing, as the Telegraph reports.
"All doctors will need to be able to understand when to use genomic testing and how to interpret the results they get back from the lab in practice," Chinnery tells the Telegraph. "In the short-term it's the specialists who will use it but we will increasingly see patients knowledgeable about genomics going to their GPs with questions."
The Telegraph adds that a number of genomic projects are underway in the UK such as the 100,000 Genomes Project that rely in part on the expertise of primary care physicians and that there have been calls for more widespread genetic testing of cancer patients.