CancerLinQ LLC and the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC), the professional society for genetic counselors, announced that they have entered into a strategic alliance. With the collaboration, NSGC leaders and members will provide expertise to CancerLinQ®, ASCO’s health information technology platform aimed at improving the quality of cancer care using real-world cancer data.
At present, there are more than 4,000 genetic counselors in the United States who provide personalized help to patients as they make decisions about their genetic health conditions. They have advanced training in medical genetics and counseling to identify risk factors in family history, interpret genetic test results, and guide and support patients seeking more information about issues that include:
- Which genetic tests may or may not be right for them
- How inherited diseases and conditions may affect them or their families
- How family and medical histories may impact the chance of disease occurrence or recurrence
The increased accessibility of genetic testing has yielded benefits to patients. As more and more individuals are able to access testing services to screen for cancer genes, more data can be collected, analyzed, and interpreted to help providers improve treatment decisions leading to personalized, high-quality care.
Joy Larsen Haidle, MS, CGC
NSGC Past President and cancer genetics expert Joy Larsen Haidle, MS, CGC, will serve as the society’s representative on the CancerLinQ Oncology Leadership Council, the strategic advisory body comprising all official partner organizations that guides the growth and direction of CancerLinQ. NSGC will have the ability to access CancerLinQ Discovery™, a research and insights program that provides access to curated sets of statistically deidentified clinical data from the CancerLinQ platform, for NSGC to use internally within its organization to learn from and understand the current, real-world state of cancer care in the United States.
CancerLinQ and CancerLinQ Discovery are projects of CancerLinQ LLC. For more information on how to participate or partner with CancerLinQ, please visit CancerLinQ.org. ■
© 2018. American Society of Clinical Oncology. All rights reserved.
