Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Genomics is a critical part of precision medicine and increasingly used in healthcare. Many diagnoses and treatment decisions already rely on DNA or RNA testing, especially in cancer and infectious diseases. Bioinformatics - the domain of biological data analysis - is often seen as too technical because it usually involves coding. As a result, many clinician scientists and health professionals do not have the background knowledge or skills needed to take full advantage of genomic tools in the clinical setting. To build bioinformatics awareness and skills in these professionals, low-barrier content and clinically relevant training materials are needed. Our proposal for a two-day planning meeting will bring together a multidisciplinary team of subject-matter experts to outline the requirements for a coding-free online course on bioinformatics fundamentals. Our team includes clinicians, clinician scientists, bioinformaticians, medical educators, ethics professionals, and patient partners. The meeting will focus on reviewing results from recent needs assessments, examining the skill recommendations from standard setting bodies, identifying the medical training gaps, outlining areas for material development, understanding the patient experience with precision medicine, and designing relevant clinical case studies. At the end of the meeting, we will have developed a comprehensive outline for a 'Coding-free Introduction to Bioinformatics for Health Professionals' workshop. This outline will enable development of modular interactive e-learning materials that will benefit working professionals with different backgrounds across the life and health sciences.