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DNA sequencer output.

A Special Issue of the Journal of Community Genetics has been published examining issues surrounding resource allocation in genomic medicine from multiple perspectives. 

Six articles explore and describe best practice in resource allocation, and highlight key challenges, particularly those that are generalisable internationally. An editorial, with co-authors including Ethox colleagues Angeliki Kerasidou and Mark Sheehan, sets out the context for the special issue and the challenges that remain.

The editorial identifies these challenges as including: appropriately valuing both the health and non-health outcomes of health technologies; how to include the wider economic impacts of genome sequencing in resource allocation analyses; the need for the health economic evidence base to evolve, to include values, preferences, and budgets of lower and middle income countries; and the increasing need to consider resource allocation issues at the population level. The authors argue it is these challenges that should drive future research on resource allocation in genomic medicine.

This special issue grew out of a conference in June 2018, organised by the Centre for Personalised Medicine in collaboration with the Health Economics Research Centre and the Ethox Centre: Resource Allocation in Personalised Medicine: Evaluation, Translation and Ethics

It was recognised that the issues debated at the meeting were of broad global relevance, and the content of the presentations and discussions should be disseminated beyond conference attendees to encourage a wider conversation about resource allocation in genetic and genomic medicine.

The Journal of Community Genetics will maintain an article collection on “Resource Allocation in Genomic Medicine”, beyond the publication of this Special Issue, to receive all future submissions on this important topic.

Buchanan, J., Goranitis, I., Slade, I. et al. Resource allocation in genetic and genomic medicine. J Community Genet 13, 463–466 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12687-022-00608-w