To investigate the cognitive level of medical workers on clinical application of genetic testing in hematological diseases.

A survey was conducted on the WeChat platform among 209 medical scholars who participated in the "6th Ludaopei Hematology Forum" held in Beijing on June 29-30, 2018. The investigations included the basic information of respondents, knowledge of genetic testing, and the status and feedback of the application. For the number of respondents who obtained postgraduate qualifications in 2015, 2016, and 2018, the row×column χ² test was performed, and the four-table χ² test was used for pairwise comparisons.

The age of the respondents was mainly under 40 years old, and the academic qualifications were mainly undergraduate and postgraduate. There was a statistically significant difference in the number of respondents who obtained postgraduate qualifications in 2015, 2016, and 2018 (P<0.05). The number of respondents who obtained postgraduate qualifications in 2015 and 2016 was used for pairwise comparisons, and the difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). The number of respondents who obtained postgraduate qualifications in 2018 increased compared with the previous two years, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The proportion of clinicians in hematology department was 44.50%. 50.24% of the respondents had intermediate titles or above. About 80% of medical workers used genetic testing in the clinic. Genetic testing was frequently used in grade A class three hospitals, high-level specialized hospitals, and other tertiary hospitals. The main limiting factors for clinical application of genetic testing include exorbitant costs, medical insurance that cannot be reimbursed, and too few genetic testing projects with clear clinical significance. 73.08% of the respondents can accept a turnaround time of 5-10 working days for genetic testing reporting, and 56.52% of clinicians considered that the results of the genetic testing report were complicated.

Medical workers have a certain cognitive level for genetic testing. The limiting factors for the clinical application of genetic testing include exorbitant costs, medical insurance that cannot be reimbursed, and the lack of well-defined genetic testing. The turnaround time of the test report and the readability of the results need to be improved.