Stakeholder feedback on the draft WA Health Genomics Strategy 2021

The Office of Population Health Genomics asked stakeholders for their feedback on the draft WA Genomics Strategy and their views to inform the development of the strategy’s first implementation plan.

The strategy has one overarching vision – that all Western Australians benefit from the timely and appropriate translation of genomics, enabling precision medicine and precision public health.

A total of 66 responses were received through Citizen Space and 2 written responses were received via email. The key themes that emerged from the responses are summarised below.

Vision:

• More than 20 respondents explicitly agreed with or made positive comments about the vision.
• More than 10 respondents commented on the term “maximise the transformative potential”, suggesting that it was either too ambiguous or not beneficial to include.
• Some respondents suggested that the vision needed to be more patient focussed.

Underlying principles:

• All comments received were positive and in support of the underlying principles.
• Some additional principles were suggested for inclusion – the most mentioned ones being innovation, privacy and confidentiality, accountability, integrity, and collaboration.
• A couple of respondents suggested that seven underlying principles was too many.

Enablers of success:

• The feedback received was overall supportive of the enablers of success.
• There were mixed responses around what “governance” should encompass, indicating that this word can take on different meanings for different stakeholder groups.
• Eight respondents commented on the critical need for reliable and ongoing funding, suggesting that this should be an enabler of success.

Priority areas, goals and initiatives:

• More than 20 respondents explicitly agreed with or made positive comments about the priority areas.
• More than 10 respondents suggested including more detail on the needs, preferences and roles of various stakeholder groups relevant to genomics, i.e. carers and guardians beyond immediate family members, peer support groups, regional and remote patients and staff, allied health professionals, not-for-profit organisations, and the private sector.
• Other factors important to multiple stakeholder groups were:
  • Co-design and co-production with health consumers
  • Secure and sustainable funding of the genomics workforce and services to ensure continuation and growth
  • Improving the genomic literacy of health professionals and consumers
  • Ethical use of genomic data
  • Equity of access.

Stakeholders also provided valuable input to shape the content of the strategy’s implementation plan, particularly the key actions to complete in the first two years.

In response to the feedback, the Office of Population Health Genomics:

• Amended the vision to be clearer.
• Consolidated the number of underlying principles from seven to four and incorporated the additional principles suggested by stakeholders in the process. The only exceptions were accountability and collaboration, as they were already included as enablers of success.
• Removed governance from the enablers of success to minimise confusion. Governance is instead covered in the conclusion section with additional details on what the strategy’s governance structure will look like for additional clarity.
• Amended the content of the strategic priorities to better reflect stakeholders’ values and views, including:
  • Referring to a multi-professional genomics workforce and incorporating vignettes to acknowledge the diverse applications and many successes of genomics in WA.
  • Emphasising the critical role of health consumers in the co-creation (i.e. co-design and co-production) of genomic healthcare services and policies.
  • Elevating sustainable investment as an enabler of success to signify that this is critical to ensure the goals of all strategic priorities are met.
  • Expanding on the importance of genomic and health literacy for both health professionals and consumers.
  • Highlighting the need to protect privacy and trust with all community members.
• Considered stakeholder’s views in drafting the strategy’s first implementation plan (internal working document).

The final WA Genomics Strategy 2022-2032: Towards precision medicine and precision public health is now available to view here.

Any queries can be directed to genomics@health.wa.gov.au.