NHS not ready to take advantage of breakthroughs in genetic sequencing

The health service is not ready for an impending genetic revolution in medicine and requires urgent reform to turn scientific advances into better patient care, a parliamentary inquiry declares today.

The NHS needs to revamp its provisions for genetic testing, the training of doctors and nurses, and its IT and laboratory services, if understanding of the human genome is to deliver health benefits to its patients, according to a House of Lords report.

Medical advances stemming from the sequencing of the human genetic code are already starting to improve healthcare, and could transform it over the next decade, the influential Lords Science and Technology Committee said. Widespread genetic testing could aid the diagnosis and prevention of disease, and allow doctors to prescribe targeted drugs according to patients’ individual genetic profiles.

This opportunity, however, could easily be missed without significant changes to NHS infrastructure, training and practice, the committee found. It called on ministers to prepare a new White Paper on genomic medicine, to address the challenges ahead. “The use of many types of genomic tests is increasing rapidly, both in the NHS and in tests sold directly to consumers, and the availability of these tests will, in time, have a dramatic impact on disease diagnosis and management,” the report said. “This is already placing strain on the expertise of doctors, nurses and healthcare scientists, who at present are poorly equipped to use genomic tests effectively and to interpret them accurately, indicating the urgent need for much wider education of healthcare professionals and the public in ‘genomic medicine’.