Page 21 - Genomic Medicine in Emerging Economies

10 CHAPTER 1: Genomic Medicine in Developing and Emerging Economies

FIGURE 1.1 Schematic drawing depicting the tangible benefits from the collaboration between
developed and developing/resource-limited countries in the field of genomic medicine (see text
for details).

as (1) inquiring of the stakeholders’ opinions and stance related to genomics;
(2) legislating new measures to establish a legal framework for the provision of
genetic services, so that not only quality of genetic services is ensured but also
so that the general public and the patients are safeguarded; and (3) adopting
guidelines for the pricing and reimbursement of genetic tests based on related
cost-effectiveness analyses.
Fourth, investment in the ongoing genomics education of healthcare profes-
sionals and biomedical scientists, both at the undergraduate level (by the har-
monization of genomics education in university curricula) and at the graduate
level (with training activities and specialized conferences focused on genomic
medicine–related themes) (see Chapter 9), should be set as one of the top pri-
orities, particularly for developing countries and low-resource environments.
Providing such education would be much easier than, for example, acquir-
ing expensive genomic infrastructure, and would surly come with a short-term
return on such an investment. Given the low cost, and even lower in the next
years, of genome sequencing and genomics technologies in general, the real
bottleneck now is not the generation of genomics data, but the interpretation
and clinical delivery, which makes even more important the development of
highly qualified personnel in developing countries.
Last but not least, it is imperative that strong multinational consortia and
research networks are established at a regional level or, optimally, internation-
ally to ensure that the efforts to implement genomic medicine in develop-
ing countries benefit the respective populations. Networks like the Genomic