The GHP NOPC worked collaboratively with a diverse groups of pharmacy professionals from across the UK and led by the RPS to develop a statement in relation to pharmacogenomics. The focus of this work was to describe the current, as well as the very near future, areas where pharmacy professionals could lead and develop key aspects of genomic medicine implementation across Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Genomics is the study of an organism’s complete set of genetic information and Genomic medicine involves performing genomic tests to identify any changes in an individual patient’s DNA, RNA, genes, chromosomes or proteins which could be used to personalise their individual therapeutic management.

Pharmacy professionals are highly skilled in the interpretation of complex scientific information and apply evidence based decision making in daily patient and healthcare colleague interactions, in all clinical settings. We believe that Pharmacy professionals have a role in supporting our diverse cultural populations in engaging with research in Genomics so that the data generated will reflect the communities in which we live.

The Genome UK strategy has implementation plans across the 4 countries of the UK, and recognises the pivotal role of pharmacists in the successful delivery of personalised prescribed for patients.

We know that many GHP members are leading the way in this area and have established roles in the application of Genomic medicine, but we know that for many others, pharmacogenomics and its application offers a new perspective on your daily role, regardless of your practice setting.

We hope that the collaborative statement will provide some inspiration to those who are keen to implement pharmacogenomics into your daily practice, irrespective of the stage of your career or work sector.

One thing we know for certain is that pharmacogenomics, Genomic medicine and personalised medicines decisions will impact every one of our members in the next few years, and in order to help us to support you in your development, we would like to invite you to complete a short questionnaire on pharmacogenomics.

~Roisin O’Hare and Ojali Yusuff