Post Graduate Certificate program in Medical and Genetic Counseling

Curriculum description and Program structure

This program is a one year full time course. It is divided over three semesters. In the first semester students take six theory courses namely Human genetics, Cell and Molecular Biology, Clinical Embryology, Biochemistry, Biostatistics, and Psychology. Students are also trained in practical laboratory techniques covering Cytogenetics, Molecular genetics, Microbiology, Biochemistry, Clinical pathology and Histopathology in the specialized diagnostic labs here at Kamineni Hospitals.

Continuous evaluation of students’ progress throughout the semester is done through homework assignments given out every week. Additionally, there are also tests conducted twice a month for all the courses. For the purpose of end of term examinations, the theory courses are grouped together and held as 2 long examinations each covering 3 of the courses. Each exam is designed so as to properly test the students’ depth of understanding in all three of the courses that it covers. Students are also tested on their laboratory training with both practical and theory exams.

The second semester of the program is primarily aimed at providing students with practical experience in counseling patients. Students spend the first half of the semester in external rotations in different specialty clinics/centers around the city, mainly the Thalassemia and Sickle cell Society, Autism Center, Obstetrics and Gynecological hospitals and Community health centers for adolescent girls. In the second half of the semester, they have internal clinical rotations in different departments within Kamineni hospital such as Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, Oncology, ENT, Neurology and General Medicine.

In these rotations, students are given a chance to counsel, under supervision, patients at these centers/ departments. They also get to directly observe disorders that they have read about. At the end of the semester, there is a written examination testing them on all the medical and counseling concepts that were touched upon during their rotations. They are also required to give case presentations where they must present selected interesting cases from their rotations and explain their evaluation of the case, their approach to counseling the patients and any observations they had from their experience in that case.

Apart from this core curriculum, the students also have regular weekly teleconferences with our international faculty, Ms. Maya Thangavelu, who is a practicing Genetic Counselor at Irvine, California. In these teleconferences, they discuss interesting cases, counseling strategies and other topics pertinent to Genetic Counseling. These meetings allow the students to keep up to date with latest developments in the field and also help them to gain perspective on the differences in counseling in different cultural settings in general, particularly India and the United States.

For the third semester, students select a topic of interest that they will then work on for their thesis project. This work may be carried on either at Kamineni hospitals itself or at any other hospital too. Their progress will be evaluated based on periodic progress reports that they will need to submit and a final thesis defense at the end of the semester. The entire program is thus designed to provide students with a solid foundation for pursuing a career as a Genetic Counselor.

Dr. ANNIE Q HASAN
HOD
Genetics and Molecular Medicine
Kamineni Hospitals
L.B.Nagar, Hyderabad.