Amelia Jones | 28/07/2026
The key message: the science is moving faster than the healthcare system.
Charlotte Fleming, Market Access Consultant at HEOR, attended the Genomics England Research Summit 2026. This is the first blog in a three-part series exploring what the summit revealed about the future of genomics-enabled healthcare and what it means for evidence generation and market access.
Genomics is already influencing care across newborn screening, cancer and rare disease diagnosis. At the Research Summit, examples ranged from the Generation Study’s identification of more than 160 babies with rare genetic conditions to the use of rapid tumour sequencing during brain surgery.
The question is no longer whether genomics can improve healthcare. Increasingly, the challenge is whether healthcare systems are equipped to use genomic information effectively.
Discussions around the ambition of a genomically enabled NHS by 2035 highlighted familiar but significant barriers: diagnostic capacity, workforce development, genetic counselling services, patient pathways and digital infrastructure.
For manufacturers and healthcare decision-makers, this highlights an important shift. Successful adoption of genomics-enabled innovation will depend on more than demonstrating clinical benefit or securing reimbursement. Patients must be identified, test results interpreted and care pathways adapted to accommodate new ways of delivering care.
As genomic testing becomes more routine, implementation may become the greatest determinant of whether scientific advances translate into meaningful patient outcomes.
Bottom line: the future challenge for genomics is not generating data but ensuring health systems can act on it.