New Genomics education programme to improve patient care

Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) with Genomics Partnership Wales have developed flexible eLearning to increase staff understanding of genomics and improve patient care across Wales.

As genome technology advances our understanding of diseases such as cancer and heart disease, we can adapt and modify the care that we give patients leading to better outcomes for them. This new learning aims to encourage staff working in areas including oncology, cardiology and paediatrics to study genomics that relates to their role and use that learning to improve patient care.

Martin Riley, Deputy Director of Education Commissioning & Quality Education, HEIW said:

“Developing our current and future workforce is one of our key aims and ensuring that education and learning keeps pace with advancements in health-related technology and literacy is vital.

“This new programme is flexible, bilingual and interactive and offers different levels of study; from introductory level for staff who have no background in genomics to Master’s level. It also reflects feedback from staff who want to have a better understanding of how genomics can be applied to their role so they can improve the quality-of-care outcome for patients across Wales.”

Michaela John, Head of Programmes for Genomics Partnership Wales said:

“The rapid advances in genomics, both in terms of technology and our understanding, provide huge opportunities to improve healthcare. But we recognise that this benefit to our patients cannot be realised without up-skilling and empowering the healthcare workforce to enable the integration of genomics into the patient pathways. These introductory and specialist genomics modules provide the appropriate training, and it is crucial that we widely promote them to our NHS Wales staff to increase awareness of genomics and the opportunities available to improve clinical care for their patients. Engagement and support from senior leaders across the NHS will also be key to ensuring staff are supported to participate in the relevant modules for their clinical area.”