The implementation of the PRECeDI recommendations will benefit citizens, patients, healthcare professionals, healthcare authorities and industry and ultimately seek to contribute to better health for Europe’s citizens. The PRECeDI project, in fact, is fundamental since that public health professionals may play different roles translation of genomics research into health benefits. First, they may act as the “honest brokers” responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of genomic applications, preventing potential harm and unnecessary health care expenditure through premature use. They may use genomics tools to evaluate the health impact of public health interventions on different subsets of the population. Most importantly, public health professionals can contribute to modelling and evaluating the implementation of evidence based genomic applications. In this regard, among the priorities of the public health genomics movement, there is the assurance of an adequate public health capacity on genomics. Moreover, despite the prominence of frontline research, the vast majority of potential genetic/genomic applications (tests or interventions) have not yet been implemented into clinical practice; indeed, it is estimated that not more than 3% of published research focuses on the translation from experimental genetic/genomic applications to evidence-based guidelines and health care practice. Thus, this “implementation research” receives relatively little attention, with few genetic and genomic applications actively considered for introduction into clinical practice. One barrier to such implementation is a lack of appreciation of the cost-benefit of new testing regimes, particularly pertinent nowadays, when health care systems are under financial pressure. Therefore, economic evaluations of candidate technologies are essential for clinicians and public health officials when deciding which genetic tests to introduce, how to manage carriers and non-carriers, and how to assess the impact of testing on health-related quality of life. In fact, economic analysis allows one to collect and integrate all relevant factors linked to genetic testing (prevalence of disease and mutation, specificity and sensitivity of the test, association between genotype and phenotype, efficacy of interventions in preventing disease) and to estimate the benefits and costs of an entire health care program, beginning with the characteristics of a target population and continuing with preventive surveillance, prophylactic treatments and consequent follow-up.
The European Commission recognized how the project accomplished to involve healthcare professionals, authorities, and researchers. For this reason, the PRECeDI Project is reported as an example of the most recent successful stories from EU Research in the European Commission website on the page dedicated to Research and Innovation Projects -Successful Stories (
http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?artid=49872(opens in new window)).
