Research: The Faculty of Medicine Comes First in the Region in the Field of Education in Human Genetics
The School of Medicine at the University of Montenegro is the only higher education institution in the Slavic-speaking Balkan countries that offers education in human genetics. It does so through two compulsory subjects – An Introduction to Human Genetics in the first year and Clinical Education in Medical Genetics in the fifth year of studies.
This was shown by international research conducted in 22 medical schools, in six Balkan countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Croatia, Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia. The research results are published in the international journal Frontiers in Genetics, and next to Dr Olivera Miljanović from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Montenegro, the contributors are professors Nina Pereza, Rifet Terzić, Dijana Plaseska-Karanfilska, Ivana Novaković, Željka Poslon, Saša Ostojić i Borut Peterlin.
„Medical genetics is one of the most complex and most comprehensive multidisciplinary medical specialties covering all phases of human life and all organ systems with a special attention to ethical, legal and social implications brought to us by a fascinating technological progress in the analysis of human genome. Western European countries have recognized for quite a while the importance of improving the genetic literacy of medical students as well as future representatives of the health system to be included in care about patients with genetic disorders“, professor Miljanović, from the Faculty of Medicine in Podgorica, explains.
In the countries of the Western Balkans, as stated in this study, the progress of medical genetics was not always accompanied by an adequate level of application in clinical practice, nor by raising genetic literacy among students of medicine. Furthermore, most countries have not yet introduced medical or laboratory genetics as a medical specialty, nor do they offer compulsory courses in basic and clinical/medical genetics in the integrated system of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. In all these countries, only one subject, either the introduction to human genetics or the clinical genetics, is offered. Both subjects are represented only at the Faculty of Medicine in Podgorica, and this model is cited in the conclusion of the research as the best example for an integrative approach to the comprehensive education of future doctors of medicine in the field of genetics which offers an introduction to human genetics in the first year and clinical education in medical genetics in in the fifth year of study. Medical genetics is both a fundamental science and a clinical specialty, therefore the education of medical students in the field of human genetics is a key prerequisite for the appropriate approach to and the treatment of patients with genetic disorders in the 21st century. Bearing in mind that knowledge about the human genome extends to almost all clinical areas of medicine, at the Faculty of Medicine of the UMNE during the 2016-2017 accreditation word order, a new course of clinical genetics was introduced in the fifth year, in addition to the previously existing elementary course of human genetics in the first year.
The results of this study emphasized the need for future collaboration with an aim of reaching a consensus on the requirements of education in medical genetics in the Slavic-speaking Balkan countries.
This is the first research on the current status of education in basic and clinical genetics on integrated studies of medicine in six Slavic-speaking Balkan countries. It was implemented in the middle of 2021 and published at the beginning of 2022. It resulted in a conclusion stating that further research on this topic is justified for reasons of excellence analysis of undergraduate study programs within medicine genetics in more than a few years of studies all over Western Balkans countries,