The NHS Genomic Medicine Service (GMS) has formally announced the launch of the NHS GMS Networks of Excellence, which will help to deliver the ‘Accelerating Genomic Medicine in the NHS’ strategy, focusing on areas of high priority for the NHS and working to support transformation in patient care by enabling earlier and more precise diagnosis, risk stratification and treatment interventions.
In October 2022, NHS England published Accelerating Genomic Medicine in the NHS, the first NHS genomics strategy. The strategy included a plan to establish ‘NHS Genomic Networks of Excellence’ as part of its commitment to provide a world-leading NHS Genomic Medicine Service (GMS) which provides cutting-edge benefits for patients in the NHS.
NHS England is now funding eight innovative networks to develop the evidence and model of adoption for cutting-edge genomic advances and technology applications that will be transformative for patients. The NHS Genomic Networks of Excellence are designed to be partnerships between the NHS, academia, the third sector and industry to leverage expertise and resources from the broader genomics ecosystem, and to ensure there is a route towards rapid informing commissioning decisions.
Following a rigorous process of expressions of interest and business case submissions, reviewed by NHS England Genomics Unit, NHS England national clinical directors, national specialty advisors, the Office for Life Sciences, Genomics England and other key stakeholders, eight networks of excellence have been established in the following areas:
- Prenatal genomic medicine
- Circulating tumour biomarker testing
- Haemato-oncology
- Rare and inherited disease
- Severe presentation of infectious disease
- Improving the identification and outcomes for individuals with inherited and acquired cardiovascular disease
- Pharmacogenomic and medicines optimisation
- Genomics artificial intelligence (AI).
Read more about the NHS Genomic Medicine Service here: www.england.nhs.uk/genomics/.