A national collaboration founded and led by Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) has published a roadmap for using pathogen genomics more effectively in healthcare. Initial BSMS seed funding has already helped establish a national professional network, deepen collaboration with UK public health agencies and generate new industry partnerships.
Genomic technology can reveal how infections spread with far greater precision than many traditional approaches. By reading the genetic code of bacteria and other pathogens, healthcare teams can determine whether infections are linked, identify transmission that might otherwise remain hidden and target action more effectively.
However, generating genomic data is only part of the challenge. For the technology to improve patient care, results must be available quickly, interpreted consistently and integrated into routine clinical and infection prevention services.
A new open-access Personal View in The Lancet Microbe sets out a practical roadmap for overcoming these barriers and moving pathogen genomics from individual research projects towards sustainable use in everyday healthcare.
Building a national partnership from Sussex
The work was founded and is led by Associate Professor James Price at BSMS, working with partners from healthcare, academia, national public health organisations, professional societies and industry.
James is an academic in infection prevention at BSMS and an Infection Control Doctor at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. His research focuses on translating new technologies into practical tools that can help healthcare teams identify and prevent the transmission of infection.
Dr Maria Krutikov, an NIHR Clinical Lecturer at BSMS, was also part of the multidisciplinary author group for the publication.
James said: “Pathogen genomics gives us unprecedented detail about how infections spread, but the technology only improves care if the information is timely, interpretable and useful to clinical teams.
“I founded GENOTIPE to bring together the different organisations and disciplines needed to solve that implementation challenge. This publication is an important milestone, but the most significant outcome is the collaborative infrastructure we have established to move the field forward.”
From seed funding to national impact
The initial work was supported through BSMS Higher Education Innovation Fund funding. This funding enabled the team to convene stakeholders from across the UK, identify the main barriers preventing routine adoption and develop a shared national roadmap. The resulting publication describes the changes needed across service design, workforce, data systems, governance, clinical evidence and economic evaluation. The programme demonstrates how targeted seed funding can achieve impact beyond a single research output. The stakeholder work provided the foundation for GENOTIPE, Genomics to Optimise Infection Prevention, which has since been adopted by the Healthcare Infection Society as a Special Interest Group. GENOTIPE now provides a sustainable structure through which clinicians, researchers, public health agencies, policymakers and industry partners can coordinate research, education, implementation and policy development.
The next phase is already under way
Publication of the roadmap is not the endpoint. The team has already held a further stakeholder meeting involving representatives from the UK Health Security Agency, Public Health Wales and Public Health Scotland to agree priorities for the next phase of work. These discussions are helping to identify the evidence needed to support wider implementation, the most important clinical uses for pathogen genomics and opportunities for coordinated research across the UK. The initiative has also generated new industry collaborations focused on evaluating how sequencing technologies and associated systems could be integrated into real-world healthcare services.
James added: “The next stage is to turn the roadmap into practical studies and implementation programmes. We want to establish where pathogen genomics adds the greatest value, how services should be delivered and what evidence NHS and public health organisations need before adopting these approaches at scale.
“This has always been a partnership. Sussex has provided the leadership and initial momentum, but progress depends on working closely with healthcare, public health, academic, professional and industry partners.”
Read the open-access Personal View in The Lancet Microbe >
Find out more about GENOTIPE through the Healthcare Infection Society >