Improving consent for clinical genomic testing

The CEIH in part­ner­ship with the Cen­tral Ade­laide Local Health Net­work and the Women’s and Children’s Health Net­work, has devel­oped an infor­ma­tion­al ani­mat­ed video about genet­ic test­ing and an online elec­tron­ic con­sent form based on a nation­al genet­ic test­ing con­sent form, to pilot a process for online con­sent for genet­ic screening.

The twelve-month pilot aims to improve patient under­stand­ing of genet­ic test­ing and allow peo­ple to pro­vide con­sent in the com­fort of their own homes with time to con­sid­er the poten­tial impacts. 

Anoth­er expect­ed ben­e­fit is that peo­ple will have more time to dis­cuss their spe­cif­ic require­ments dur­ing genet­ic con­sul­ta­tions, as con­sent will no longer need to be pro­vid­ed dur­ing the consultation.

This excit­ing approach to con­sent has the poten­tial to be applied to oth­er areas in health to improve online process­es for med­ical or screen­ing consent.