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Committees, Advisory Roles and Evidence of International recognition

  • Invited member of the American Society Human Genetics policy group on CRISPR, writing a position for the ASHG on genome editing, 2015 -

  • Invited member of the Health Education England Curriculum Development Group for Clinical Scientist: Genomic Counsellor training. Writing core curriculum for training genetic counsellors in the UK. 2015-2016

  • Invited member of the conference organising committee for the Transnational Alliance of Genetic Counselors conference in Barcelona 2016

  • Invited member of the conference organising committee for the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health converence in Kyoto 2016

  • Invited by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics to respond to their report on the 'Collection, linking and use of data in biomedical research and health care' launch at Westminster, 3rd February 2015. Provided a comment to the Council on how the report fitted with my experiences of the ethical issues raised by Big Data genomic initiatives.

  • Invited by Health Education England to act as 'subject matter expert' on Consent and Ethics for their training and education of mainstream health professionals in the NHS consenting patients into the 100,000 Genomes Project. This involves working with HEE to develop appropriate training resources to be delivered in January 2015.

  • Member of the Global Alliance Regulatory and Ethics Working Group (REWG). Also member of the Consent Task Team.

  • Member of the British Society of Genetic Medicine Ethics and Policy committee.

  • Course leader, together with Chris Patch, Heather Skirton, Georgie Hall and Marion McAllister on 'Genomic Counselling for Genetic Counsellors' at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Designed a 2 day training course, supported by the Wellcome Trust on sequencing, interpretation and analysis of genomic data specifically for practicing genetic counsellors nationally and internationally. To run July 2015.

  • Contributed towards the creation of policy for the NHS on data reporting (including what to do with incidental findings) in a pre-natal setting in the UK, as part of a working group for the Joint Committee of Genomic Medicine (2014).

  • Elected member of the Association of Genetic Nurses and Counsellors (AGNC) committee, professional body for genetic counsellors in the UK, representing their interests nationally (2014 - ). Represented the AGNC on various meetings: UKGTN, JCGM.

  • Invited teacher on the Wellcome Trust Advanced Courses for professionals programme: Fundamentals of Genetics Jan 2014, Molecular Pathology and Diagnosis of Cancer Nov 2015, Nov 2014, Nov 2013.

  • Invited expert with other colleagues from the Sanger Institute to input genomics knowledge into the teaching curriculum for health professionals via the NHS National Genetics and Genomics Education Centre, Birmingham.

  • Invited to be an Expert Adviser to Oxford Desk Reference Clinical Genetics by Firth HV and Hurst JA 2nd edition to be published by OUP 2013. Reviewed the text on Communication.

  • ​​One of seven invited members of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory's Human Data Committee, established to advise the Director General (Heidelberg) and the Director of the EMBL-EBI (Cambridge) on questions arising in relation to accepting, storing and providing access to data related to human research subjects (2013 - present).

  • Invited member of the Public Health Genomics Foundation (Cambridge) Steering Group on Realising Genomics in Clinical Practice. Steering Group tasked with advising the structure of a PHG Foundation workshop on IFs and contributing to policy formation on IFs (2013 - present).

  • Nominated by the Board of Censors for Genetic Counselling in Australasia and approved by the Executive of the Human Genetics Society of Australasia to be one of three members of the Accreditation Panel tasked with assessing MSc Genetic Counselling courses for accreditation (2013 - present).

  • Invited chair of the Association of Genetic Nurses and Counsellors working group tasked with creating a position paper on the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics recommendations on the sharing of incidental findings from exome sequencing in a clinical setting (2013 - 2014)

  • Invited Board Moderator of the Genetic Counsellor Registration Board UK and Eire, to provide academic moderation and support for genetic counsellor assessors overseeing professional registration of genetic counsellors (2013)

  • Twice invited Plenary Speaker at the Human Genetics Society of Australasia Annual Conference (2013 - had to turn down; 2014 - accepted)

  • ​Co-Chair and Facilitator of the International Committee on Genetic Counselor Credentialing with Prof Janice Edwards on behalf of the Transnational Alliance of Genetic Counselors (2011 - present).  www.tagc.med.sc.edu/

  • Invited member of PhD Steering Group for Gill Crawford, Southampton University (PhD on attitudes towards sharing genomic data in clinic) (2011 - present).

  • Elected member of the Genetic Counsellor Registration Board (GCRB) UK and Republic of Ireland (2004-2010).  Vice-Chair 2007-2009.  Involved in co-writing the original policy and guidelines for the registration of UK genetic counsellors, including key documents on mentoring genetic counsellors for registration, guidelines on supervision requirements for genetic counsellors and the assessment process required for registration. 

  • Chair of the GCRB Reciprocity of Registration Working Group (2005-2010), involved in identifying reciprocal registration pathways for genetic counsellors worldwide.  Lead author on the UK guidelines for assessing overseas genetic counsellors for UK registration.

  • ​Invited member of the Genetic Counsellor Statutory Regulation Steering Group (2006-2008) involved in putting together an application for the genetic counselling profession to have statutory regulation.

  • ​Member of the clinical review panel appointed by the Site Specific Breast Group for the West Anglia Cancer Network, responsible for updating clinical protocols for WACN (2004-2005).

  • UK representative on GENDEAF European Concerted Action group on Psychosocial Issues Relating to Genetic Deafness (2002 - 2006) with Prof Dai Stephens, Cardiff University

  • Associate Lecturer at Homerton School of Health Studies, Cambridge University (2001-2005).  Co-organised a Masters level course on cancer genetics for nurses, lectured to students, wrote and marked exam papers.  Organised study day for nurses across East Anglia on breast cancer.

Anna Middleton
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