The GeneScene Project in biomedical informatics for clinical telegenetics began in 1999 when the Global TeleGenetics (GTG) GeneScene Service was founded with the mission to deliver clinical telegenetics care to underserved regions of the country and the world that did not have access to clinical genetics care. The GeneScene Screens developed by GTG provided the first online telegenetics screening services and were described in the conference abstracts Interactive Web-based Genetic Screening Questionnaires in a Primary Care and Obstetrics Practice: A Pilot Study and Interactive Web-based Genetic Screening Questionnaires: Comparison of Asian and American Participants published in 2000.
Initial work on the GeneScene Project built the software into one of the first online web-enabled electronic medical record (EMR) systems as early as 1999, and certainly, the first online EMR system customized for clinical telegenetics. Despite the clinical success of the GeneScene telegenetics health care and the technological success of the GeneScene EMR in providing service to several thousand patients, the GTG GeneScene Telegenetics Service was taken offline in 2004 due to a lack of adequate reimbursement or subsidization from patients, third-party payers, benefactors and government funding agencies.
Perhaps, the GeneScene Telegenetics Service of 1999-2004 was just ahead of its time, just too early and too far ahead of the curve. But now the time appears more auspicious to bring the GeneScene TeleGenetics Service back online because of the new support for development and modernization of health care information technology promoted by President Obama's administration. As a consequence, GTG has relaunched the GeneScene Screen Service, and will further evaluate a relaunch of the entire GeneScene Telegenetics Service. If you have an interest as a health care provider in actively participating in further development of this field of clinical telegenetics, then GTG would welcome hearing from you via the Contact Form or via the telephone/address found at the bottom of this web page.