Media contributions
1Media contributions
Title GPs ‘central’ to DNA screening uptake Degree of recognition National Media name/outlet NewsGP Media type Web Country/Territory Australia Date 8/09/25 Description Researchers are campaigning for all-population DNA screening, and an RACGP expert agrees that GPs need to be involved for it to succeed....
An RACGP expert has called on GPs to ‘keep on top of the very rapidly changing’ field of DNA testing, as one Melbourne-based screening program recently showcased findings and sought further funding to expand its scope...
RACGP Expert Committee – Quality Care Chair Professor Mark Morgan, said GPs will be integral to an all-population DNA screening program.
‘The arguments are mounting for whole-of-population DNA testing,’ he told newsGP.
‘It will come down to conversations between well informed GPs and their patients.
‘We know that discussions with GPs make a huge difference to screening uptake. GPs will be central.’...
Professor Morgan said it would be practical for GPs to offer DNA saliva tests through clinical consultations.
‘I would think that would be very straightforward, and far better to bring that into the fold with general practice than to have those kits provided outside of general practice … where that opportunity for pre- and post-consideration is lost,’ he said.
However, Professor Morgan said GPs would need to be funded for longer consultations.
‘It will be aided by two significant changes in the way that Medicare rebates work. These consults take longer than somebody presenting with a single condition for diagnosis and management, so we need to support longer consults,’ he said.
‘And secondly, preventive healthcare is not as planned and proactive and team-based across the lifespan as it should be.
‘I’ve long argued for health assessment item numbers, the range of people who are eligible for those, to be expanded.’...
Additionally, GPs need to ‘keep on top of the very rapidly changing availability of testing and functionality of testing’, according to Professor Morgan.
‘It’s going to become a mainstream part of medicine, increasingly, so there is a need to keep up to date,’ he said.
‘We also need to know how to talk to people about results from testing, because some people are getting private tests done, and also to counsel people about the pros and the significant cons of having private testing done.’
Professor Morgan said the United Kingdom is already ‘building infrastructure for national testing as we speak’, ahead of the introduction of whole-population genome sequencing for every newborn baby in England by 2030 under the NHS.
He said that, similarly, infrastructure would be needed to support whole-of-population testing in Australia, ranging from secure storage facilities for test results and an increase in genetic counsellors, through to legislation to prevent insurance companies from accessing genetic testing.
‘There’s a need for insurance companies to be firmly put in a place where they’re not allowed now, or in the future, to introduce loadings based on genetic testing,’ he said.
‘Otherwise, that will act as a barrier to people having genetic testing because of insurance concerns.’
The age range of the DNA Screen participants is ‘exactly the age range’ that has limited contact with general practice, Professor Morgan said.
‘Many people in that age range don’t have multiple long-term medical conditions that would result in them seeing GPs regularly,’ he said.
‘So, a Medicare-funded health assessment eligibility throughout adulthood would be extremely helpful in setting up systems, including recall systems, to proactively look after your patients rather than waiting for them to come, because that’s an age range where people are busy and really only see their GP when they’ve got an acute need to.’
Producer/Author Jo Roberts URL https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/gps-central-to-dna-screening-uptake?utm_source=racgpnewsgpnewsletter&utm_campaign=newsgpedm&utm_medium=email Persons Mark Morgan