Happy Medical Genetics Awareness Week!  The goal of this week is to raise awareness of the invaluable contributions that medical genetics healthcare professionals make in the diagnosis, management and prevention of genetic diseases!  Each day we will feature an amazing PA who works in the field of medical genetics!

Day 3/4: Meet Melanie Rasnic, PA-C.  Melanie is a genetics PA at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System in the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics.

Why genetics?

I started my career here in September 2019, and I am the first PA in this particular specialty at VCU so this has been a great opportunity to collaborate with the geneticists and genetic counselors on carving out my role and responsibilities.  I chose medical genetics for a number of reasons, one being this is a topic that has always interested me, especially after finishing my pre-reqs for PA school which included courses in General Genetics, Cell Biology, Biochemistry, and Pharmacology among others that touched on the topic.  I have close friends who live with genetic disorders such as Marfan syndrome and others who have lost children to conditions such as MCADD and Apert Syndrome.

What does your typical day entail?

I work Monday-Friday, seeing patients 3-4 days a week at two outpatient clinics.  Most days I see 2-4 patients (new and follow-up), and I see both adults and children.  The patient populations I see the most are children with autism spectrum disorder and/or significant delays, connective tissue evaluations, and follow-up on patients with an established diagnosis of Trisomy 21.

What is your favorite thing about being a genetics PA?

My favorite part of being a Genetics PA is being a member of a brilliant team that works tirelessly to advocate for our patients, whether that is for additional therapies, specialist referrals, genetic testing, resources for support, and everything that has to happen behind the scenes to pull that off; all with a view to providing answers and management to the best of our abilities.  I am so proud to have the opportunity to be a part of this department and this health system, and look forward to the exciting advancements in the field that will enable us to provide even more help and support to our patients.