Redressing Policy in Cancer Genetics: Moving toward Transdisciplinary Teams

Abstract

Cancer genetics involves bringing together a team of health care providers with expertise in both oncology and genetics in which advanced practice nurses play a critical role. Cancer genetic risk counseling programs are exemplary models for future risk assessment clinics in other clinical specialties such as neurology, cardiology, oncology, endocrinology, pediatrics, or gerontology, just to name a few. The authors claim that cancer genetics programs, as the forerunner of genetic science in all clinical settings, need to clearly articulate how teams of health care professionals can collaborate across disciplinary boundaries and avoid hierarchical power imbalances in unidisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary models of practice. They examine potential pitfalls when a traditionally hierarchical ‘old genetics’ model is used in a setting in which the new genetics requires a comprehensive transdisciplinary team approach to practice.