NHS England Genomics Supplier Engagement Event

NHS England's Genomics Unit, working with techUK, is bringing together NHS organisations and key digital healthcare suppliers to support the next stage of digital interoperability for genomic medicine. 

The event will focus on the adoption of the national Genomic FHIR standards and how Electronic Patient Record (EPR), Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) and Trust Integration Engine (TIE) suppliers can support their implementation through integration with national services and, increasingly, through native interoperability within their products. 

A key objective is to bring suppliers together with the NHS organisations that use their products. This will enable a practical discussion about how national genomic interoperability standards can be incorporated into supplier product roadmaps and implemented across the NHS. 

Why we are holding the event 

NHS England has developed national FHIR standards to support the digital exchange of genomic ordering information between clinical systems, national genomic infrastructure and genomic laboratory services. 

Successful national adoption requires collaboration across the wider NHS technology ecosystem. EPR, LIMS and integration technology suppliers have a particularly important role in enabling these standards to be adopted consistently and at scale. 

The event will: 

• Introduce the national direction for digital Genomic Order Management and the associated Genomic FHIR standards. 

• Explain the role that EPR, LIMS and TIE suppliers can play in enabling national adoption. 

• Explore opportunities for suppliers to incorporate the standards directly within their products and product roadmaps. 

• Discuss both integration-based approaches and the longer-term move towards native interoperability. 

• Bring suppliers together with NHS Trusts and Genomic Medicine Service stakeholders using their products. 

• Understand supplier opportunities, dependencies and potential barriers to adoption. 

• Explore how NHS England, NHS organisations and suppliers can work collectively to accelerate adoption rather than developing organisation-by-organisation solutions. 

Who we want to engage 

The event is intended to bring together representatives from the principal technology suppliers supporting genomic requesting, laboratory processing and healthcare integration across the NHS. 

This is expected to include suppliers of major EPR platforms, LIMS and pathology systems, and Trust Integration Engine/integration platforms, alongside representatives from NHS Trusts and Genomic Medicine Service regions that currently use those products. 

The intention is to create a practical supplier-and-customer conversation rather than a traditional NHS briefing session. 

Intended outcome 

The event will establish a shared understanding of the national direction for genomic interoperability and begin a more structured engagement between NHS England, NHS organisations and their technology suppliers. 

The longer-term ambition is to enable genomic ordering to become increasingly standards-based and interoperable by design, reducing the need for repeated bespoke local integrations and enabling EPR and LIMS products to interact more consistently with national genomic services. 

The detailed agenda, speakers and participating organisations are currently being developed with techUK and will be confirmed as planning progresses.