National Pharmacogenomics (PGx) and clinical decision support principles workshop series

Please be advised that the session is invite only. Please register your interest to participate by signing up to the waiting list. If the event appears as fully booked, that is not the case.

Overview

On behalf of NHS England's Pharmacogenomics Digital Group (PDG), we are pleased to invite you to participate in a national, principles-led workshop series exploring the future use of pharmacogenomics (PGx) within Electronic Health Records (EHR), Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) and prescribing workflows across the NHS. The session will be co-chaired by Prof Sir Munir Pirmohamed from the UKPGx and Stratified Medicines Network.

As pharmacogenomics becomes increasingly relevant to personalised prescribing, there is a growing need to develop a shared understanding of how PGx information can be safely, consistently and effectively integrated into digital clinical systems. Recent engagement with suppliers and stakeholders has highlighted both significant opportunities and important areas requiring alignment, including clinical decision support, interoperability, evidence sources, terminology, governance and patient safety.

This workshop series will bring together NHS stakeholders, EHR and CDSS suppliers, genomics experts, clinical informaticians, technical architects, standards specialists and regulators to collaboratively develop a set of nationally aligned, supplier-agnostic principles for PGx-enabled clinical decision support. The workshops are not a procurement exercise, nor will products or suppliers be evaluated or compared. Instead, the focus will be on identifying shared principles that support safe and effective implementation whilst enabling innovation across the market.

Objectives

Participants will have the opportunity to contribute to discussions on:

• Clinical value and appropriate use of PGx within prescribing workflows

• Data standards, interoperability and future infrastructure requirements

• Clinical safety, governance, transparency and evidence management

• Equity and consistency of implementation across the healthcare system

• Future opportunities for collaboration and development of implementation guidance

Proposed format

The programme will consist of:

• Pre-workshop background recordings and papers that will be accessible via a dedicated NHSFutures folder for attendees – these will provide context and align participants on the workshop approach

• A face-to-face workshop day comprising three facilitated sessions focused on clinical value, data and governance, and principles development and consensus-building

Who should attend

To ensure a focused and productive discussion, participation is intended for NHS clinical, informatics and genomics colleagues and supplier organisations with demonstrable experience in one or more of the following:

• Pharmacogenomics and genomics services

• Clinical decision support systems

• Prescribing systems and medicines optimisation

• Electronic health records and interoperability

Supplier organisations are requested to nominate up to two representatives who collectively provide:

Clinical expertise, for example:

• Clinician

• Clinical informatician

• Clinical safety lead

• Pharmacist or medicines specialist

Technical expertise, for example:

• Technical architect

• Solution architect

• Product lead

• Interoperability or standards specialist

This will help ensure discussions are informed by both clinical and technical perspectives and support meaningful exploration of implementation considerations.

In addition, individuals from NHS and/or genomics backgrounds are invited to express interest to support clinical and technical discussions if they have expertise in one or more of the areas above.

Expected outcomes

The workshop series will inform:

• A set of nationally aligned set of PGx CDS principles

• Recommendations for future guidance and implementation approaches

• Identification of key dependencies, gaps and areas for further collaboration

Expression of interest

Expressions of interest are invited from organisations and individuals who meet the participation criteria outlined above. The organising committee aims to ensure a balanced mix of clinical, technical, supplier, regulatory and NHS representation and may therefore limit attendance from individual organisations where required.

For supplier organisations, submissions should clearly identify the proposed clinical representative and technical representative who will participate in the discussions.

We look forward to bringing together the genomics, medicines, digital and supplier communities to help shape the future principles underpinning the use of pharmacogenomics within NHS clinical systems.