?️Sounds of Science Podcast – Episode 5 on Increasing Access to Genomic Testing in Europe

As the science around genomics continues to evolve, advanced diagnostics technologies are delivering benefits to today’s patients while supporting future research and clinical development. However, beyond research programmes, many of these technologies are not reaching patients in clinical routine care in Europe.

Patients’ health outcomes in diseases like cancer continue to vary because of stark differences in the availability of and access to innovative and personalised healthcare. Their fragmentation across countries and healthcare systems is largely due to knowledge gaps as well as a lack of infrastructure and healthcare system funding.

On our latest podcast, we follow up on last year’s discussion on genomic sequencing, by looking at some of the measures that leading EU Member States have taken to pave the way toward wider access to genomic testing and discuss what else can be done to ensure wider patients access with some very knowledgeable experts as well as some of the world’s leading advanced diagnostics developers.

Joining us on this podcast are:

• Richard Charter, Vice President MedTech Market Access – Europe & Asia Pacific, Alira Health
• Caroline van der Meijden, Director of Reimbursement EU, Agendia
• Don Husereau, Health Economist & Adjunct Professor at the University of Ottawa
• Matias Olsen, Public Affairs and Policy Manager at EUCOPE.

You can listen to Episode 5 and all other Sounds of Science episodes using the links below:

• Anchor 
• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts

Episode Highlights

Richard Charter, Vice President MedTech Market Access – Europe & Asia Pacific, Alira Health.

“From a healthcare system perspective, there’s potentially a lot of risk in any healthcare intervention, diagnostics included, that needs to be considered. Organisations such as Genomics England and GenomicsDE in Germany are essentially giving a spotlight to a much-needed area of the advanced diagnostics ecosystem to overcome this risk and to move advanced diagnostics out of the lab only and into routine clinical practice. It carves out an area where the value of these technologies can really be put into the fore.”

Caroline van der Meijden, Director of Reimbursement EU, Agendia.

“I see the value of real world evidence but don’t see it always being evaluated reimbursement decisions. Scientific techniques are really valuable for these kind of innovations. The bridging initiatives and the public private collaborations are key. We have had a tremendous amount of support here in Europe for the development and clinical validation of genomic tests.”

Don Husereau, Health Economist & Adjunct Professor at the University of Ottawa.

“There is a multi-stakeholder aspect to this, because we’re talking about a technology that bridges science policy, innovation policy, and healthcare policy. So suddenly,  you’re telling healthcare decision makers that they need to broaden their viewpoints to consider things that under traditional coverage frameworks we considered investigational.”

Matias Olsen, Public Affairs and Policy Manager at EUCOPE

“There needs to be more room for public and private bodies to collaborate around the value assessment and there is a need for continuous dialogue and learning in order to ensure that frameworks reflect the latest scientific advancements. As we know these technologies are rapidly evolving with a lot of innovation happening at a rapid pace.”

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For more information on EUCOPE’s Genomics Working Group or how your organisation can contribute to it, please contact Matias Olsen olsen@eucope.org

Visit our Resources page for all of EUCOPE’s current and past work on Advanced Diagnostics.