Page 178 - Genomic Medicine in Emerging Economies

The Golden Helix Academy 167

organized in Athens, Greece (April 27–29, 2017), with a theme related to the
implementation of genomic medicine in the clinic and will also participate
as organising partner of the fourth G2MC Conference that will be organised
in Cape Town, South Africa (November 28–30, 2018) with a theme related to
implementation of genomic medicine in resource-limited settings.

Also, as of 2016 and as part of its active role in the dissemination and outreach-
ing activities of the Ubiquitous Pharmacogenomics Project (U-PGx; H2020-
668353; http://www.upgx.eu), the Golden Helix Foundation has participated
in the co-organization, together with local partners of the UPGx Consortium,
of the U-PGx Personalized Medicine Days. These events are based exclusively
on the concept of Golden Helix Pharmacogenomics Days. There are eight UPGx
Personalized Medicine Days planned for the entire duration of the U-PGx proj-
ect (2016–20), and at the end of the project, a large 4-day symposium, the
U-PGx Personalized Medicine Symposium, will be organized in Leiden, the
Netherlands, again based exclusively on the concept of Golden Helix Symposia.

THE GOLDEN HELIX ACADEMY

The Golden Helix Academy is part of the educational activities of the Golden
Helix Foundation. It aims to establish, in concert with established academic
institutions, e-learning modules related to genomic medicine topics, including
but not limited to pharmacogenomics and genomic medicine, public health
genomics, genome informatics, economics and health technology assessment
in genomics, nutrigenomics, and ethics in genomics (genethics). These e-learn-
ing modules lead to academic certificates specifically aimed at the needs of
parties from developing countries. These modules are provided in English, as
well as in local languages, where applicable.

Level of Genetic Literacy in the General Public
In general terms, genomic literacy involves two distinct competencies: (1)
understanding what genetics and genomics knowledge is and how it is pro-
duced, and (2) the capacity to reason and make decisions about socio-scien-
tific issues relevant to genetics and genomics (Roberts, 2007). Studies on the
public understanding of genetics and genomics have shown that the general
public lacks an accurate understanding of even fairly fundamental genetic con-
cepts, which impacts on its understanding of more complex genetic phenom-
ena (Lanie et al., 2004). Ongoing research suggests that this may also directly
impact on decision-making and argumentation about societal issues associ-
ated with genomics and its implications for medicine (Lewis and Leach, 2006;
Sadler and Fowler, 2006; Sadler and Zeidler, 2005).

There are two important issues that are crucial to the public understanding
of genetics. The first is the public perception of science as a process, and of