In March 2024, the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting was held in Toronto, Canada. ACMG is a professional membership organization that represents individuals in the medical genetics field. The ACMG meeting focused on discoveries and developments in genetic disorders, genetic testing and screening, treatments, and delivery of genetic services. ASHG regularly attends the ACMG meeting and maintains a longstanding relationship with the organization. This partnership stems from an overlap in our membership bases as well as their service to the medical genetics field which supplements our human genetics/genomics community.
ASHG recognizes that many of its members are in the clinical space, and wants to celebrate that. One of the ways to achieve this is to engage and expand our presence at impactful conferences like ACMG. The ACMG exhibit hall was a great opportunity to connect with current ASHG members as well as those who are unfamiliar with ASHG.
Current ASHG member and Membership Engagement Committee member, Carl Smith, PhD was in attendance and shared his experience with us:
ASHG staff enthusiastically interacted with attendees over the multi-day event. Topics of discussion included membership opportunities and benefits such as complimentary abstract submission and reduced registration rates for the 2024 ASHG Annual Meeting in Denver, CO. ASHG is proud to offer a wide breadth of sessions and workshops at the ASHG Annual Meetings that cover the large range of topics that our members need to grow and stay current in the field. This message was relayed to attendees and showcased how that sets us apart. Because of ACMG’s location in Toronto this year, it was highlighted that the ASHG 2026 Annual Meeting will be held in Montreal to start building excitement for our members in Canada!
American Journal of Human Genetics (AJHG) Editor-in-Chief Bruce Korf, MD, PhD, also joined staff to engage with attendees and answer questions about publishing with AJHG. Some of the benefits that come with being an ASHG member are free online access to AJHG, as well as no publishing fees. Members can also save 20% on publishing fees in the open access journal, Human Genetics and Genomics Advances.
In conjunction with ACMG, ASHG also celebrated Medical Genetics Awareness Week which coincided with the ACMG meeting. Medical Genetics Awareness Week aims to raise awareness of the contributions that medical genetics healthcare professionals make in their work every day. This year’s theme was “Celebrating the Contributions of the Entire Medical Genetics Team to Patient Care and Public Health.” ASHG looks forward to celebrating Medical Genetics Awareness Week each year with both ACMG and our members who serve in the medical genetics space.