AB100. Current status, challenges, and future prospective of genetic counseling in Taiwan

Background: Since the passing of Genetic Health Act in 1984, genetic health programs have been widely set up in each medical center, providing services including pre-marital check-up, prenatal care, newborn screening, and genetic counseling to general health care. Because of this program, the quality of medical care has improved. Additionally, the Rare Disease and Orphan Drug Act was established in 2000. Even though numerous medical professionals are trained in the field of genetics, small numbers of them have experienced with genetic counseling. Our main purpose is to find the reasons behind the lack of knowledge of genetic counseling among general public and professionals.

Methods: Information regarding Rare Disorders Act and the work of genetic counselors in different countries was collected and a cross-national comparison between each country and Taiwan was performed.

Results: We found that the main difficulty of genetic counselors in Taiwan is due to complex nature of the work and extra jobs besides counseling.

Conclusions: We hope that increased number of genetic counselors will provide a better and complete medical care.

Keywords: Genetic counseling; rare disorders; rare disorders act; Taiwan