Genomics healthcare and research

Genomics healthcare and research

Clinicians, researchers, patients, and policy makers are encountering a variety of ethical issues in genomics healthcare and research.

The development of a UK best practice approach – or 'gold standard model' – for ethics in genomics healthcare and research could help those working in the field to negotiate ethical issues, promote consistency of approach and, ultimately, create better, more equitable experiences for patients and research participants.

We have been leading discussions on establishing a UK best practice approach for applying strong and consistent ethical standards in genomics research. This work was carried out in partnership with the Office for Life Sciences (OLS) and genomics healthcare leads in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

We published findings from this project in July 2023, including a summary report from our workshops and case studies. As a next stage in this work, are looking to create a map of existing ethics resources in order to understand what is already available and identify areas where further work is needed.

For more information on this work, please email us on bioethics@nuffieldbioethics.org.

This work was funded and led by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.