About Genetics Department

Medical genetics is any application of genetic principles to medical practice. This includes studies of inheritance, mapping disease genes, diagnosis and treatment, and genetic counseling. It is estimated that 3-7% of the general population will be diagnosed with a recognized genetic disorder, not including common disorders with genetic components (i.e polygenic disorders), such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and psychiatric disorders. Genomic medicine focus on understanding how variations in an individual’s DNA may affect disease and health. This might lead to new ways to diagnose disease, earlier detection, primary prevention (prenatal diagnosis and preimplantation genetic diagnosis) and identifying genetic predisposition to a particular disease. This knowledge can also lead to new approaches to treatment.

Vision & Mission

• A high quality clinical and diagnostic care for families with genetic disorders.
• To educate, teach and increase awareness of medical genetics among professionals and community.
• To conduct research that will help understand genetic disorders and contribute to improved therapies.
• Our mission is to support the overall Sultan Qaboos University Hospital mission and vision.

Services

• Provide tertiary clinical care (inpatient and outpatient) in the fields of biochemical genetics, cancer genetics, clinical genetics and dysmorphology and genetics counseling.
• Contribute to teaching undergraduate, and post-graduate students
• Provide specialized genetic diagnostic services to Sultan Qaboos University Hospital.
• Initiate and sustain medical research in the field of Genetics and Genomics.
• Participate in activities and initiative that aim at genetic knowledge dissemination among professions and in the population by enlarge.