Physician-Reported Benefits and Barriers to Clinical Implementation of Genomic Medicine: A Multi-Site IGNITE-Network Survey

Abstract

Genetic medicine is one of the key components of personalized medicine, but adoption in clinical practice is still limited. To understand potential barriers and provider attitudes, we surveyed 285 physicians from five Implementing GeNomics In pracTicE (IGNITE) sites about their perceptions as to the clinical utility of genetic data as well as their preparedness to integrate it into practice. These responses were also analyzed in comparison to the type of study occurring at the physicians’ institution (pharmacogenetics versus disease genetics). The majority believed that genetic testing is clinically useful; however, only a third believed that they had obtained adequate training to care for genetically “high-risk” patients. Physicians involved in pharmacogenetics initiatives were more favorable towards genetic testing applications; they found it to be clinically useful and felt more prepared and confident in their abilities to adopt it into their practice in comparison to those participating in disease genetics initiatives. These results suggest that investigators should explore which attributes of clinical pharmacogenetics (such as the use of simplified genetics-guided recommendations) can be implemented to improve attitudes and preparedness to implement disease genetics in care. Most physicians felt unprepared to use genetic information in their practice; accordingly, major steps should be taken to develop effective clinical tools and training strategies for physicians.