Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2026
Original Citation
Truhlar A,
Charnysh E,
Pal S,
Reader J,
Hendy K,
Feero W,
Ryan K,
Vogle A,
McCain S,
Ferber R,
Furnival J,
Lee C,
Roberts J,
Uhlmann W,
Sanghavi K,
.
Genetic counselors' perspectives and experiences with workplace genetic testing: Results of a national survey. Genet Med Open. 2026;4:103483.
Keywords
JGM
JAX Source
Genet Med Open. 2026;4:103483.
ISSN
2949-7744
PMID
41756736
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gimo.2025.103483
Grant
This study was conducted as part of supplemental funding to an R01 study titled “Ethical, Legal, Social, and Policy Implications of Workplace Genetic Testing.” Research re- ported in this publication was supported by the National Human Genome Institute of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01 HG010679 (to C.L. and S.R.).
Abstract
Purpose
Workplace genetic testing (wGT) is a wellness benefit offered to employees, providing a new access point for genetic testing. Although genetic counseling is not typically required in wGT, genetic counselors (GCs) play a key role in integrating genetic testing into health care and may interact with wGT in industry, laboratory, or clinical settings.Methods
To ascertain US GCs’ perspectives and experiences with wGT, we administered a web-based survey, targeting GCs most likely to have professional experience with wGT. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize responses.Results
Of n = 331 participants (mean age = 36, >80% White female), 27.0% reported having professional experience with wGT. Over half (62.4%) were open to providing counseling on wGT. Most (92.7%) expected wGT to increase genetic testing access, especially for those not meeting clinical criteria (94.8%), but 59.4% expected wGT to increase genetic discrimination. The majority (69.2%) agreed employers should be permitted to offer wGT but disagreed with employers selling (90.9%) and accessing (68.3%) employees’ aggregate data.Conclusion
GC participants demonstrated qualified support for wGT and favored limited employer access to, and use of, employees’ wGT data. As genetic testing avenues expand, these findings can inform the effective implementation of wGT and testing in nonclinical settings.Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.