Medical Genetics is an area of medicine that deals with the management and diagnosis of genetic disorders. Medical genetics is different from human genetics, wherein human genetics indicates the application of genetics to medical care. In other words, the counseling, management and diagnosis of individuals with genetics disorders can be considered as part of medical genetics, while research on the inheritance and causes of genetic disorders can be regarded within both medical and human genetics.

DM in Medical Genetics is a three-year super-specialty course offered only by a few medical colleges in India and only a single government-run medical college offer this course in India that too within a medical council approved intake capacity of just two students per year and the name of this college is:

• Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow

Aim of DM in Medical Genetics course:

Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences offers DM in Medical Genetics Course with the following aims:

• To teach communication, counseling skills and prenatal diagnosis techniques and to make the doctors capable of acting as consultant medical geneticist

• To make them competent in management and diagnosis of genetic disorders and to interpret genetic laboratory data

• To offer indepth knowledge of principles of genetic counseling, genetic diseases and basic genetics

Eligibility requirement:

For seeking admission to the DM in Medical Genetics, candidates must have completed their MD in pediatrics or general medicine or even candidates with MD/MS in Obstetrics & Gynecology are also eligible to apply for this course.

Scope of medical genetics:

Medical genetics has its application in various areas of research inclusive of clinical diagnostic actions, clinical training or physicians, genetic counselors and nutritionist into the roots and inheritance of genetic disorders. Different examples descend within the scope of medical genetics and some of them are given below:

• Prenatal screening or Prenatal Diagnosis, which indicates testing of conditions of diseases in embryo or fetus before the baby is born

• Teratogens

• Cancer Genetics

• Connective Tissue disorders

• Skeletal Dysplasia

• Mitochondrial Disorders

• Metabolic Disorders

• Autism

• Mental Retardation

• Dysmorphology

• Birth Defects

This field of medicine is increasingly becoming applied to many diseases and recent advances has been done in this field that reveals cause to the diseases like opthalmogic, psychiatric, cardiovascular, dermatologic, pulmonary, renal, neurologic, endocrine, etc…

Thus, the field of medical genetics has a wide scope and this in turn will increase the need for DM in Medical Genetics professionals thereby offering them a wide range of employment opportunities.