Improving Access and Quality of Genetic Counselling in Clinical Care in Sweden : The Value of eHealth Solutions and a Validated Outcome Measure

Abstract: Genetic counselling is increasingly important for investigations into hereditary diseases in the field of clinical genetics. The increase in demand is due to the discovery of more genetically caused diseases, increased complexity and awareness of genetic testing. However, access to genetic counselling is limited worldwide, as in Sweden, and not always offered as needed, because there is a lack of trained professionals, such as genetic counsellors and geneticists. Additionally, genetic counselling is difficult to evaluate as there is no validated quality measure for genetic counselling in Swedish. This work investigates important factors for improving access to and quality of genetic counselling in Sweden.The studied factors include such as the genetic counsellors, the use and implementation of eHealth technology, and the possibility to evaluate these areas using a valid outcome measure in Swedish. This dissertation consists of four studies. The first is a questionnaire study that found that genetic counsellors in Sweden play an integral role in patient care and access, and provide quality patient support throughout the clinical encounter. However, it also found that there was a lack of trained genetic counsellors and that they were overly burdened with administrative work, such as sample handling, billing and making appointments. This reduced the genetic counsellors’ time spent directly with patients, thus hampering patient access. The second study investigated healthcare professionals’ pre-pandemic perceptions of using a specific eHealth technology providing genetic counselling via video or telephone, termed telegenetic counselling (TGC) throughout this dissertation. Findings showed that TGC was considered appropriate, believed to increase patient access and autonomy, and improve patient care. Yet, the healthcare professionals expressed some reluctance and identified many barriers to using TGC, such as the lack of evidence, and anticipated issues with technology and resources. Nevertheless, taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic, the third study investigated the feasibility of rapid implementation of TGC in a real, clinical context. Both healthcare professionals and patients found TGC acceptable, useful and satisfactory, and TGC also improved access to genetic counselling during the pandemic. The implementation of TGC proved effective in regards to the overall goal of genetic counselling: increased patient empowerment after genetic counselling. This was measured by the newly adapted patient-reported outcome measure in genetic counselling in Swedish, the GCOS-24swe. The fourth study performed a psychometric evaluation of the GCOS-24swe and showed validity, reliability, and responsiveness of the outcome measure. Therefore, the GCOS-24swe provides a useful clinical quality measure to inform developments in genetic counselling practice, individualised patient care, and evaluation of implementation efforts in Sweden. Finally, a synthesis of these research findings results in a suggested implementation strategy for TGC in the clinical context. In summary, this dissertation identifies ways to improve the access to and measure the quality of genetic counselling in Sweden.