Overview

Nowhere is the intersection of technology and ethics more challenging and controversial than in the quest for healthy children. Exponential advances in the development and use of genomic testing have enabled prospective parents to more accurately identify and define discrete risks for the health of their child prior to and/or during a pregnancy.

Ken Maclean, Clinical Geneticist and Paediatrician, Advicor will discuss the clinical and medicolegal implications arising from the emerging area of expanded preconception genetic carrier screening.

His presentation will explore:

• recessive genetic inheritance patterns;
• the nature and number of disorders included on panel screens;
• the ‘depth’ of DNA screening;
• ethnicity;
• uptake; and
• the predictive value of a ‘positive’ result for the couple and child.

Attendees will develop an understanding of the ‘genetic architecture’ of common categories of foetal and paediatric genetic disorders, which will help them to request and understand DNA testing in medicolegal practice.

Agenda

Thursday 23 July 2020

12:00 pm Webinar begins and webinar house keeping explained
1.00 pm Webinar concludes

Speaker

Dr Ken MacLean
Clinical Geneticist, Advicor

As a Sydney University undergraduate, Ken undertook a BSc(Med) in cell biology and an option term in genetic metabolic diseases at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada.

Ken trained in Paediatric Medicine at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead before undertaking advanced training in Clinical Genetics, in a program run jointly by the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and the Sydney Children’s Hospital. He obtained his fellowship from the Royal Australian College of Physicians in 2003. Ken is a member of the Human Genetics Society of Australasia and the Australasian Association of Clinical Geneticists.

Post-registration, Ken has worked extensively as a Paediatrician in a variety of centres across regional NSW and in the Sydney Metropolitan area as well as in clinical genetics in the ACT and NSW. His vocational experience is extensive ranging from laboratory research to clinical practice to consultancy. Based in the city, his interests centre on Reproductive Genetics – specifically preconceptional genetic screening, pre-implantation and prenatal genetic diagnosis and developmental biology as well as paediatric and adult genetic disorders.

As a specialist, Ken is compassionate and unbiased. “A primary focus of the practice is preconceptional screening and assessment as well as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD),” he says. “I am interested in increasing awareness of preconceptional genetic screening and the utility and ethics of PGD. I am committed to increasing community awareness of genetic diseases and the increasing options for the prevention of genetic disorders. A core goal is to provide Australians with ready access to preconceptional DNA testing with expert advice.”

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