Genomic Medicine

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) is one of the four partnership Trusts that make up the NHS Central and South Genomic Medicine Service Alliance (CAS GMSA). Along with Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital, University Hospital Southampton and Oxford University Hospital we cover a geography spanning the Midlands, Oxford, Thames Valley, Southampton, Wessex and the Isle of Wight.

The NHS Central and South Genomic Medicine Service Alliance (CAS GMSA) is one of the seven Alliances launched in England in January 2021. The Alliances have been created by NHSE England to embed genomics into routine care across the country ensuring equity of access and providing faster diagnoses and more effective, personalised treatment for patients. The Alliances, as part of the NHS Genomic Medicine Service, will help the NHS become the first health service in the world to bring genomic testing and personalised medicine into routine care, with a focus on improving our understanding of the underlying causes of illness to guide specific treatment options for each patient.

The Alliance aims to provide access to genetic and genomic testing for our patient population, and will work in collaboration with partner organisations and patient and public involvement experts to build on our existing clinical and research strengths to build trust in genomics for patients, the public and NHS staff and bring genomic medicine to the heart of patient care.

The CAS GMSA will aim to achieve this through establishing standardised testing pathways, providing genomic education to clinicians and understanding the unmet needs of patients and people across our geography.