
GENETICS IN PWS 101
Thank you to those who attended our first ECHO 4 PWS Webinar!
PWSA | USA's - ECHO 4 PWS Health Care Provider Series
PWSA | USA is excited to announce the launch of our new Health Care Provider Project ECHO Series. We are proud to offer this opportunity to health care professionals who work with patients affected by Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) and to be the first PWS organization to implement Project ECHO® in the United States.
“We understand the need to further educate health care providers taking care of our loved ones. Through this ECHO series we will offer access to specialists in PWS, expanding knowledge and sharing standards of care for PWS patients,” said Paige Rivard, MBA, PWSA | USA CEO.
Our first healthcare ECHO topic focused on “Genetics in PWS 101, and was presented by Jessica Duis, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics at Children’s Hospital Colorado, University of Colorado, followed by a 20-minute case study on PWS presented by Shawn McCandless, MD, Chair of the Department of Genetics and Metabolism at Children’s Hospital Colorado.
PWSA | USA’s Health Care Provider Project ECHO Series will touch on a wide range of healthcare topics in the PWS space and will be available for all health professionals across our network including (but not limited to): Geneticists, Pediatric Endocrinologists, Neonatologists, Nurses, Pediatricians, Endocrinologists, Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, Pulmonologists, Orthopedic Surgeons, Dieticians, Physiotherapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Medical Students and Professional Caregivers.
While this ECHO series is only for health care providers to attend, recordings of the webinars will be made available for our PWS families on our website.
Be on the lookout for more details about future ECHO 4 PWS webinar opportunities.
Speakers

Dr. Jessica Duis, MD
Dr. Jessica R. Duis is a clinical geneticist and pediatrician specializing in Prader-Willi Syndrome. She is currently a pediatric geneticist and special care pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Colorado, where she has built multidisciplinary Centers of Excellence across the United States with a focus on patient care, translational research, clinical trial design, and outcome measures. Her research has included investigator-driven clinical trials and translational outcome measure design both in the lab and in the natural environment. As an Associate Professor at Colorado University School of Medicine, Dr. Duis is dedicated to educating the next generation of medical professionals and staying at the forefront of research and clinical practice in the field of genetics.

Dr. Shawn McCandless, MD
Dr. Shawn McCandless is the Chair of the Department of Genetics and Metabolism and Children’s Hospital Colorado. He received his medical degree from Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and has been in practice for nearly 30 years. He specializes in clinical biochemical genetics, clinical genetics, and medical biochemical genetics and is experienced in Prader-Willi syndrome, mitochondrial diseases, inborn errors of metabolism, intellectual disability, and neonatal screening.
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