Genomics Pathology Accelerator Project (GPAP)
Introduction to project
This is a national transformation project, led by NHS England. The project will introduce a Pathology Taskforce Team, working with Pathology leads across the country to identify challenges and embed pathology pathways across England.
What are we doing?
Working with the national leadership team to:
- Establish a true baseline of service delivery for pathology genomics across the country for each Genomic Medicine Service Alliance (GMSA)
- Embed the national exemplar pathways for a range of tumour types across the geography.
- Understand the blockages and development needs of the service, to improve turnaround times e.g., resource requirements, logistical dependencies (To support efficiency gains and improve patient outcomes by improved standardisation and turnaround times)
- Standardise the test requesting process across the service, through agreement across the regions and England taking into account the need for accompanying metadata at particularly points in the testing pathway.
- Ensure safe and appropriate tissue transfer within and across the service and regions to meet the turnaround times for the optimal clinical service.
- Embed the utility and standardisation of GTABs across the geography and cancer pathways and networking with disease MDTs and clinical teams
Specifically, Central and South have hosted the first workshop in a series of seven, one being delivered by each GMSA. The ‘Walking the Path’ workshop was delivered on the 27Th September by the GMSA CAS Pathology leads, who are leading this project regionally.
We have recently awarded funding to 10 Trust teams following a competitive bidding process, to support delivery of their exemplar cancer WGS pathways. This will be achieved by bringing working groups together across the pathway to implement testing, as well as ensure healthcare professional have the educational and training resources required.