I am the Executive Director of the Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance. The Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance is delivering genomic medicine into everyday health care.
It brings together the clinical, research and teaching strengths among Victoria’s leading hospitals and research organisations: The Royal Melbourne Hospital, The Royal Children’s Hospital, The University of Melbourne, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, the CSIRO, the Australian Genome Research Facility, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Austin Health and Monash Health.
This role draws on my academic and clinical experience. After completing a PhD in molecular genetics at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Genetics and during postdoctoral research at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, I trained in genetic counselling. During 16 years of clinical practice, I worked in roles that spanned prenatal diagnosis to adult genetics based at the Royal Women's Hospital (1994-97), the Victorian Clinical Genetics Service (1997-99, 2007-10), the Royal Melbourne Hospital (1999-2004) and the University Hospital Wales (2004-7). As Senior Genetic Counsellor at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, I played a key role in establishing and managing the Familial Cancer Centre and Adult Genetics service.
A continuous theme through my career has been is multidisciplinary research and translation. I have collaborated with researchers from many disciplines on qualitative and quantitative studies to investigate the experiences of people with or at risk of a genetic condition, their needs and preferences and the impact of genetic testing and counselling. The findings of these studies have then been applied in genetic counselling practice and the delivery of health care services. I am currently leading research evaluating the process and outcome of genomic sequencing in health care practice, which encompasses patient experiences and expectations, the use of genomic sequencing results in patient care and the management of genomic sequence data. The results of this research are being applied in through the implementation work of the Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance. I continue to be interested in the communication of genetic and genomic information within families.
I actively contribute to policy development through membership of advisory committees. Currently, these include the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) Health Translation Advisory Committee; the Australian Health Ethics Committee; NHMRC Genetics Working Committee; Scientific Advisory Committee, Biogrid; Advisory Board for med.data.ed.au; and the Personalised Medicine Steering Committee of the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre.
In order to foster the use of genetics and genomics in health care, I have made major contributions to the professional development of health professionals, for example the GP education program (The Genetic File) funded by the State Government of Victoria and Biotechnology Australia. I also co-supervised a PhD project evaluating the impact of this program on GP knowledge, attitudes and behaviours, and a PhD project determining the genetic education needs of midwives. I was co-director of the Masters in Genetic Counselling program at Cardiff University (2004-7) and continue to support the education and training of genetic counsellors, by teaching students and supervising trainees.
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Clara Gaff's highlights
FEATURED Journal article
The leadership behaviors needed to implement clinical genomics at scale: a qualitative study
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Honours, Awards and Fellowships
International Award
FHGSA Fellow of the Human Genetics Society Australasia (genetic counselling)
Credentials
Positions
Honorary
Paediatrics Royal Children'S Hospital
Honorary
Medicine - Royal Melbourne Hospital
Honorary
Paediatrics Royal Children'S Hospital
Member
European Society of Human Genetics
Member
Human Genetics Society of Australasia
Education
Health Service Research and Evaluation
University of Melbourne
Doctor of Philosphy
University of Melbourne
Bachelor of Science with Hounours
University of Melbourne