Genetics Education Canada: Knowledge Organization

Genetics Education Canada: Knowledge Organization (GECKO) is Canada’s first primary care-focused genomics knowledge centre. Established in 2011, it is powered by Ottawa’s Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario with in-kind support from Sinai Health and the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. GECKO is a not-for-profit program. Understanding of the contribution of genomics to health and disease is growing exponentially. These scientific and technological advances have changed the needs of clinicians, patients and the public. The growing number of genomic tests, evolving testing and referral criteria, and complex results place increased demands on non-genomics clinicians to access and provide up-to-date and relevant information in their daily practice. Our resources are developed to meet that need. In addition to specialty consultation, we involve the learner in development of resources, from conception (topic selection) to production (resource type and content that are applicable in the current clinical setting), to evaluation. Our mission is to increase genomics literacy in healthcare providers to optimize the health and well-being of Canadians. Our vision is that Canadian healthcare providers have a basic level of genomics literacy, know where to access a trusted source of current, practice-relevant, evidence-based information on genomics, and have incorporated genomics into practice as appropriate.