- With Mayo Clinic genetic counselor
Carrie A. Zabel, M.S., C.G.C.
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Carrie A. Zabel, M.S., C.G.C.
Carrie A. Zabel, M.S., C.G.C.
"We must begin now to prepare for the future; we cannot wait until the details are known or fully understood."*
— David B. Schowalter, M.D., Ph.D., former Mayo geneticist, (*posthumous)
Carrie A. Zabel, M.S., C.G.C., is a board-certified genetic counselor who specializes in hereditary cancer syndromes. One of her main professional interests is the family medical history.
"Recognizing features in the family history which may suggest an underlying single gene disorder can have a huge impact on families," she says. "Identifying a genetic susceptibility gene can allow family members to more accurately understand their risk of disease and empower those who have an increased genetic susceptibility to take control of their medical management and lifestyle factors which may influence this risk."
She received her B.S. in biology from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 2002 and M.S. in genetic counseling from the University of Minnesota in 2004.
She was a clinical genetic counselor at the Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, Wis., before joining Mayo Clinic in August 2006 as a genetic counselor and educator for the grant-funded Mayo Eisenberg Genomics Education Program. During her time in Wisconsin, she was also an active member of the metabolic subcommittee of the state Newborn Screening Program and co-facilitated a phenylketonuria clinic.
At Mayo Clinic, she provides physician and staff education about clinically relevant topics in genomics. She also manages multiple education projects championed by Mayo Clinic physicians and is a faculty member for Mayo Medical School. In addition to her education roles, she sees adult patients in the Department of Medical Genetics.
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Genetics blog
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Oct. 14, 2008
Genetic counseling, testing available
By Carrie A. Zabel, M.S., C.G.C.
Thank you to all for sharing your personal experiences and stories about how genetics has personally touched your lives.
While I would love to respond to each of your individual situations, the complexity of your stories prohibits me from doing so. However, I was happy to see that many conversations occurred between readers; I would encourage you to continue this activity. Much genetic expertise is drawn from experience, and you never know who you might connect with when you share your story online.
In reviewing the comments, I noted that several of you were interested in genetic counseling for a health condition. If you would like genetic counseling by a professional, you can use one of two resources. The links are listed below as "Web resources."
The first, the National Society of Genetic Counselors, has a "find a counselor" feature which will allow you to enter your zip code and locate a genetic counselor in your respective area.
If you require a diagnosis or more than genetic counseling for a given family history or condition, I would encourage you to visit the second link, GeneTests. There you can locate a genetics clinic. A medical geneticist can then evaluate your past medical history, family history, and current symptoms in hopes of providing a unifying genetic diagnosis for you.
Several of you mentioned insurance discrimination. The U.S. government recently signed the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA) into effect, effective May 2009. You can find more information regarding this bill at the link below. I want to know if you believe GINA provides adequate protection, as much of the health-care community believes that the threat of genetic discrimination has been inflated by the media. Please share your thoughts and past experience so that we may all navigate this rapidly changing frontier together.
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