Commissioning Clinical & Laboratory Medical Genetics Services in the NHS

Professor Frances Flinter is a Consultant Clinical Geneticist and the Caldicott Guardian at Guy’s & St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust. She has a personal chair in Clinical Genetics at King’s College, London. In addition Frances is Chair of the Medical Genetics Clinical Reference Group, which is responsible for developing the national specialised service level strategy together with service specifications and policies for NHS clinical and laboratory Medical Genetics services in England. Economic evaluation of the entire patient pathway is required before the potential contribution of genetic testing can be properly assessed and there are many examples where the carefully targeted use of genetic testing can actually save the NHS money, as well as enhancing patient care by reducing the time it takes to make a diagnosis, enabling cascade testing to relevant family members and, in some cases, enabling truly personalised, precision medicine.