The outpatient clinic for cardiogenetics

Until the nineties of the last century, genetic counseling and testing concentrated on reproductive issues, dysmorphology syndromes, neurogenetic diseases, and hereditary aspects of mental retardation. Due to the discovery of a rapidly increasing number of genes predisposing to heritable cancer syndromes and heart diseases a lot has changed since then. Currently, more than half of genetic counseling sessions in the Netherlands are dedicated to either genetic forms of cancer or genetic heart disease. Specialized outpatient clinics were founded, in which clinical geneticists, genetic nurses, and psychosocial workers from the departments of Clinical Genetics collaborate with oncologists and cardiologists, respectively.