Basic genetics knowledge continues to be integrated into daily medical practice. Thus it is increasingly important to train clinicians in all aspects of medical genetics. The Medical Genetics Residency Program at Mayo Clinic in Rochester is a two-year program certified by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) with an optional third year for additional specialization.

The Clinical Medical Genetics residency offers comprehensive training in patient examinations, diagnosis, decision-making, therapeutics, and counseling required to provide care for patients with genetic or possible genetic diseases. The ongoing, direct patient contact offers you the opportunity to care for children and adults, including prenatal care, with a wide variety of clinical disorders, including those of monogenic, chromosomal, mitochondrial, multifactorial, and teratogenic etiology.

Additionally, you will gain experience in Mayo Clinic's cytogenetics, biochemical, and molecular laboratories, where you will learn about the usefulness and limitations of laboratory tests used in the diagnosis of genetic disorders.

As a medical genetics resident at Mayo Clinic, you will have ongoing interaction with board-certified genetic staff: counselors, clinical geneticists, nurses, and laboratory directors. Nutritionists are part of the team approach for the management of patients with metabolic diseases, and residents are expected to be present with the dietitian visits for their patients until they become familiar with the daily management of the diet. Nurses, social workers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, audiologists, psychologists, and other allied health professionals often are involved with the care of our patients; you will be expected to initiate these contacts when appropriate.

Medical genetics program residents will also work with surgeons, oncologists, obstetricians/perinatologists, cardiologists, pediatricians, neurologists, internists with various subspecialties, family practitioners, and others. Many of these interactions will arise directly from the consulting physician's referral of patients to you or vice versa as part of the comprehensive services offered at Mayo Clinic.

Certification

Training for certification in Clinical Genetics is unique at Mayo Clinic. Roughly half of the clinical genetics patients seen are adults, who will comprise an increasing proportion of genetics patients in the future. Regional, national, and international patients with a broad range of disorders are seen. At least three months of your training time in this residency is devoted to training in clinical laboratories.

This residency also includes training in genetic counseling, including non-directive options for gene testing and prenatal diagnosis.

The optional third year of study provides additional training that enables you to become certified in clinical genetics, biochemical genetics, or laboratory genetics and genomics, accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). This option is contingent on the availability of the training slots.

Program outcomes

The most important sign of the success of any training program is how graduates fare after they begin their careers. Mayo Clinic's Medical Genetics Residency Program has been in existence since 1981 and all of our graduates who took ABMGG testing have passed their boards.

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