Celebrating our successes and looking forward

Showcasing our team

We started March by bringing together people from across our region at our hybrid Showcase event, celebrating some of the key projects happening across the region. The event was attended by over 70 people in person, with almost 100 joining online.

The programme featured talks from across specialities, projects and profession including sessions on integrating genomics into Primary Care and Mental Health teams as well as talks from our Nursing leads. As well as clinical teams, the day also featured talks from our data analytics team, clinical scientists and social scientists working on equitable access.

The day opened with a session from a team working on the circulating tumour DNA transformation project, co-led by the North Thames and Northeast and Yorkshire GMS, highlighting the process of integrating the testing both clinically and at the Royal Marsden lab. The session also gave attendees the opportunity to hear directly from a patient, who had taken part in the pilot, highlighting the true impact genomic testing can have.

“Our North Thames Genomic Medicine Showcase was a wonderful opportunity to bring together people from across our region to celebrate just some of the amazing work that is happening in our region. Events like this also give us the platform to bring together people from wide-ranging specialties who are all working to better genomic access in the NHS so that they can learn from each other as we work towards our common aims.”  – Dr Angela George and Dr Sophia Varadka, Co-Medical Directors, North Thames Genomic Medicine Service

Thinking strategically about what comes next

While the Showcase gave us an opportunity to look back and celebrate, we also know how important it is to look to our future. As one of seven regional GMS’ we are working to provide equitable access to genomic testing and innovation for people across North London, Hertfordshire and Mid and South Essex. To do that, we need to bring together teams from across the region all working towards common goals.

In early March, we brought together many of our senior team to look at developing our North Thames GMS strategy, understanding how we can drive progress in our region while keeping the national strategy at the forefront of all we do.

“It was fantastic to bring senior members of our team together for the day to look forward as a leadership team. As a group who works across multiple Trusts and organisations, it is important for us to come together to think about how we best drive our mission of equitable genomic testing within the NHS forward” – Anthony Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer, North Thames Genomic Laboratory Hub