Day 2 of Genomics Conversation Week 2025 is all about 'Creating connections with colleagues'. Below you can read more about our Genomic Communities of Practice, including reflections from Clinical Leads on how they are bringing clinicians together to identify, and solve, issues and challenges.
In March 2021 NHS East Genomics started a monthly Community of Practice (CoP) for Paediatricians. The idea was to provide a scalable way to share best practice and updates about genomic testing, whilst upskilling healthcare professionals working in mainstream services at NHS Trusts across the East Midlands and East of England.
With thousands of staff working within paediatric services across the 30 NHS Trusts covered by East Genomics, the challenge of how to support the embedding of genomic medicine into pathways and everyday practice was a huge one.
The Community of Practice model has proved very successful in meeting this challenge. Over the past four years the East Paediatrics CoP has grown from modest beginnings and now regularly attracts over 80 attendees from across the region to it’s live monthly sessions, with many others catching up via recordings at their convenience.
Led by Dr Gemma Chandratillake, Education and Training Lead at East Genomics, the Paediatric Genomics CoP has engaged over 800 doctors, nurses and healthcare scientists through more than 45 sessions covering a wide range topics delivered by expert speakers: everything from genomic testing for developmental disorders and childhood cancers, to drawing family histories and talking to patients about consent for genomic testing.
As a result of running our regular genomics Community of Practice for healthcare staff working in Paediatric services, we have seen a significant shift in the ordering of whole genome sequencing for paediatric patients
Gemma Chandratillake
Gemma continues: “In addition to upskilling healthcare professionals across the region, the CoPs have served as a valuable source of feedback on regional genomic medicine pathways; members freely raise questions and challenges they experience with the service, allowing East Genomics and Clinical Genetics teams to make regional service improvements and even facilitate improvements at national level”.
Scaling up
Following the success of the Paediatric Genomics CoP, in early 2025 East Genomics put out a call for applications to set up new Genomics CoPs. The response from Trust clinicians was very positive, and in February 2025 15 new CoPs were established across a range of cancers and rare and inherited diseases.
Mr Sai Chauhan, clinical lead for the East region Endocrine Neoplasia Genomic CoP and Consultant Endocrine and General surgeon at Nottingham University Hospitals, says: “Our CoP has been instrumental in helping us to define and refine our regional Trust’s clinical pathways, particularly by embedding mainstream genomic tests into routine endocrine practice. We have been able to standardise indications using the National Genomic Test Directory, streamline pre-test counselling, and clarify post-test actions so that results can be translated more effectively into management decisions. As the conditions within endocrine neoplasia are rare, the opportunity to share expertise across centres and disciplines has been especially valuable
It has also strengthened communication between clinicians and clinical genetics. The establishment of clear referral triggers, shared documentation, and named points of contact has reduced duplication, shortened turnaround times, and ensured that complex variants and VUS findings are promptly escalated for multidisciplinary discussion. This has resulted in patients receiving more consistent information, and has enabled closer alignment of genomic testing with surgical planning and surveillance strategies
Sai Chauhan
Sai continues: “Looking ahead, there is scope to build on this foundation further. In the coming years, we anticipate the introduction of audit-ready data capture, integration of genomic result-reporting into the EPR, and the development of concise educational resources for the wider clinical team. These steps would support equitable access, reduce unnecessary repeat testing, and align with GIRFT principles on efficiency and outcome-focused care. We are grateful for the collaboration to date and look forward to continuing to develop these pathways as new evidence and technologies emerge”.
Dr Anna Stears, clinical lead for the East region Monogenic Diabetes Genomic CoP and Consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, says: “Feedback from clinicians has been very positive, with many saying how much they are enjoying, and learning from, the talks. The Community of Practice approach, as a cross- specialty forum for adult and paediatric diabetes services, obstetrics services, clinical genetics services and laboratory teams, is central to our efforts to embed and mainstream genomic testing in diabetes services within the NHS in our region”.
Dr James Whitworth, clinical lead for the East region Urology Genomics CoP and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Genetics at the Cambridge University Hospitals, says: “It is been incredibly useful to have a pan-regional group bringing together Urology colleagues from across the region.
What we have been able to discover is that different Trusts are requesting prostate cancer genetic testing differently, with some using the somatic test as a means to detect constitutional variants, which is not optimal
James Whitworth
"As a result, we have been able to feed this variation in practice back to the East of England Cancer Alliance Genomic Practitioner Service and the East Genomic Laboratory Hub to inform communications and engagement to redress this, and standardise requesting across our Trusts”.
Jo Hargrave, Lead Midwife for East Genomics, says: “Running the prenatal genomics forum has been a brilliant reminder of how communities of practice can spark connection and collaboration. It’s not just about sharing updates. It’s about creating a space where people from across the East Midlands and East of England can come together, swap ideas, and learn from each other. We are starting to see more and more obstetricians and midwives attending our meetings. This, to me, demonstrates that this community reflects the appetite to learn and improve care pathways”.
As a scalable model for engaging, supporting, educating and training healthcare staff, the CoP model is now being explored by other regional Genomic Medicine Service teams.
You can find out more about all 16 East region Genomics CoPs via the links below. If you are interested in joining one or more of the CoPs you can register your details here (opens in a new tab).
Full list of East Genomics CoPs
- Cancer in patients 0-25 (Solid and Haem-onc) - led by Emma Ross, University Hospitals of Leicester.
- Cancer of Unknown Primary - led by Kiran Purushothaman, Cambridge University Hospitals.
- Endocrine Neoplasia - led by Sai Chauhan, Nottingham University Hospitals.
- Familial Hypercholesterolaemia - led by Dr Javier Gomez and Shelina Rajan, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals.
- Gynaecological Oncology - led by Jeffrey Rubasingham, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kings Lynn and Cambridge University Hospitals.
- Haemato-oncology - led by Emily Mitchell and Audrey Morris, Cambridge University Hospitals.
- Inherited Cardiac Conditions - led by Dr Lynne Williams (Royal Papworth Hospital) and Rosemary Rusk (Cambridge University Hospitals).
- Immunology - led by Matthew Cook, Cambridge University Hospitals and the University of Cambridge.
- Lung Cancer - led by Jason Adhikaree, University of Nottingham.
- Monogenic Diabetes - led by Anna Stears, Cambridge University Hospitals.
- Ophthalmology - led by Mervyn Thomas, University Hospitals of Leicester.
- Paediatric - led by Gemma Chandratillake, NHS East Genomics.
- Paediatric Endocrinology - led by Abhijit Dixit, Nottingham University Hospitals.
- Pancreatic (Pancreatic Cancer & Pancreatitis) - led by Edward Alabraba, Nottingham University Hospitals.
- Prenatal - led by Jo Hargrave, NHS East Genomics.
- Urology (urological tumours) – led by James Whitworth, Cambridge University Hospitals.
