The first six months
The plan for the founding cohort, so a physician deciding whether to join sees exactly what they're saying yes to. Six sessions, one evening a month, six papers. At the end, three care maps argued over by eight people instead of written by one.
Dates are placeholders until the founders are confirmed. The plan assumes session one in January 2027 and the same weekday evening each month, picked by the group on the confirmation call. Everything else on this page is fixed.
What a founder commits to
- Six monthly sessions, 60 minutes, virtual, early evening Mountain time. Missing one is fine. Missing three means the group should talk.
- One paper a month, read ahead, with at least one question posted before the session.
- Presenting once and scribing once in the six. Slots are shared out on the confirmation call.
- One de-identified outlier patient, brought to session two.
- The ground rules: confidentiality, de-identification, the licensure boundary, conflict disclosure, no solicitation. Full text is in the members' area.
That's the whole commitment. No fee, no sponsor, no obligation to refer to anyone in the network.
The six sessions
Every session runs the same way: five minutes of check-in, fifteen of presentation, twenty-five of discussion, ten on what changes in clinic Monday, five to set up the next one. The convener keeps time and asks the standing question: where is the genomic signal here?
| Session | When | Theme and reading | What it produces |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | January 2027 | Family history as a diagnostic tool. Ritchie et al., Public Health Genomics 2022. doi:10.1159/000520001 Presenter: convener. | A one-page family history prompt the group agrees to use, and a first list of what a checkbox history misses. |
| 2 | February 2027 | The patient who didn't fit. Case session. Each member brings a one-paragraph outlier patient. Framing paper: Forghani et al., Genes 2025. doi:10.3390/genes16050530 | Six to eight cases sorted into the grid; first revisions to the connective tissue care map; the first roster gaps named. |
| 3 | March 2027 | Familial hypercholesterolemia. Jones et al., Front Health Serv 2023. doi:10.3389/frhs.2023.1104311; companion Morgan et al., Public Health Genomics 2026. doi:10.1159/000552982 | A cascade-testing routine a solo practice can actually run; the comprehensive genetic risk cohort gets its anchor question. |
| 4 | April 2027. First quarterly general meeting the same month. | Pharmacogenomics in everyday prescribing. El Rouby and Johnson, NEJM Evidence 2025. doi:10.1056/EVIDra2400343 | A shared answer to "when is a PGx panel worth ordering in a cash-pay practice," and which lab. General meeting: cohort leads named for the next two cohorts. |
| 5 | May 2027 | Hereditary cancer risk beyond BRCA. Case session on a family history that should have triggered testing. Framing paper: Pederson and Narod, BJC Reports 2024. doi:10.1038/s44276-024-00099-x | Revisions to the hereditary cancer care map; the first vouched entries on the specialist roster (oncology, GI). |
| 6 | June 2027 | The undiagnosed patient. A long diagnostic odyssey, symptoms to sequencing. Framing paper: Pitsava et al., Genetics in Medicine 2025. doi:10.1016/j.gim.2025.101574 | Revisions to the neurogenetic care map; a shared position on when primary care reaches for exome or genome sequencing; the retrospective. |
The first in-person dinner follows session six, in Denver. The retrospective happens there: what to keep, what to change, and the next six topics, picked by the group.
What exists at the end
- Three care maps revised by the group, each with a visit-one checklist and a changelog of what changed and why.
- The specialist and advanced imaging rosters with their first vouched entries: real names, real prices, a member behind every line.
- Six scribe summaries in the archive, so a physician joining in month seven can catch up in an hour.
- Two more cohorts with a lead and a channel, picked at the April general meeting.
- A second journal club cohort recruiting, with founders as co-leads.
Between sessions
Slack carries the week-to-week. The reading and three prompts go up in #journal-club a week ahead. Hard cases go in #cases, de-identified, any time. Each cohort channel holds its map's open questions. Referral requests go in #referrals, and the answers become roster entries. None of it is required. The sessions are the commitment; the workspace is where a Tuesday-afternoon question goes.
If you're deciding
Read one care map: the connective tissue one. If you'd want to argue with it, that's the whole job. The join page says how to say yes; a conversation with the convener first is welcome.