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Volume 9, Issue 2

How public health authorities can use pathogen genomics in health protection practice: a consensus-building Delphi study conducted in the United Kingdom Open Access

This article is part of the Implementation of Genomics in Clinical and Public Health Microbiology collection 

Abstract

Pathogen sequencing guided understanding of SARS-CoV-2 evolution during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many health systems developed pathogen genomics services to monitor SARS-CoV-2. There are no agreed guidelines about how pathogen genomic information should be used in public health practice. We undertook a modified Delphi study in three rounds to develop expert consensus statements about how genomic information should be used. Our aim was to inform health protection policy, planning and practice. Participants were from organisations that produced or used pathogen genomics information in the United Kingdom. The first round posed questions derived from a rapid literature review. Responses informed statements for the subsequent rounds. Consensus was accepted when 70 % or more of the responses were strongly agree/agree, or 70 % were disagree/strongly disagree on the five-point Likert scale. Consensus was achieved in 26 (96 %) of 27 statements. We grouped the statements into six categories: monitoring the emergence of new variants; understanding the epidemiological context of genomic data; using genomic data in outbreak risk assessment and risk management; prioritising the use of limited sequencing capacity; sequencing service performance; and sequencing service capability. The expert consensus statements will help guide public health authorities and policymakers to integrate pathogen genomics in health protection practice.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): COVID-19 , Delphi Study , Health Protection , Pathogen genomics , SARS-CoV-2 and Sequencing
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Wellcome Sanger Institute
    • Principle Award Recipient: SharonJ Peacock
  • Medical Research Council (Award MC_PC_19027)
    • Principle Award Recipient: SharonJ Peacock
© 2023 The Authors
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This article was made open access via a Publish and Read agreement between the Microbiology Society and the corresponding author’s institution.
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2023-02-06
2024-04-23
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How public health authorities can use pathogen genomics in health protection practice: a consensus-building Delphi study conducted in the United Kingdom
M Gen 9, 000912 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000912
/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.000912
/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.000912
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