“By 2035, we anticipate half of all healthcare interactions will be informed by genomic insights and other predictive analytics” (p119 NHS 10 Year Health Plan)
Genomics is at the heart of the ambitious and transformational NHS 10 Year Health Plan for England (2025). Emphasis is on three radical shifts: hospital to community, sickness to prevention and analogue to digital. A new genomics population health service will be developed which will require upskilling the workforce and use of informatics and digital analytics. For example, genomics can help with early detection of genomic conditions and disease (especially cancer) enabling personalised prevention and treatment. Another aim is to eliminate the diagnostic odyssey experienced by some patients with rare diseases, reducing the time it takes to get a definitive diagnosis from 4 years to 3 months in some instances. Pharmacogenomics will be a key pillar, and it will be integrated into routine clinical practice to optimise medication effectiveness for individual patients and prevent adverse drug reactions that cause patients harm and cost the NHS up to £2.2 billion per year.
A Unified Genomic Record (UGR), which integrates genomic data with relevant clinical and diagnostic data is being developed. It will be linked to the Single Patient Record. Patients will be able to view a complete account of their risk of major conditions and manage their personal health risks through the NHS App, with the Neighbourhood Health Service providing support to help individuals manage these risks. Systems put in place will ensure that patients have absolute confidence in how their genomic data is protected and used, giving them control over who has access.
The South West Genomic Medicine Service will be working closely together with primary care, Neighbourhood Health Services and local Genomics Champions to support delivery of genomics population health service for all here in the South West. Some important aspects of this are education and upskilling of the multidisciplinary workforce, development of new pathways and supporting integration of e.g. decision support tools into the primary care EHR systems. Primary care and population health related information on this website will be expanded over time so that it will provide a source of useful information.