Professional decision-making around next generation clinical genetics

Over the past couple of years new genomic technologies, such as DNA microarrays and high-throughput genomic sequencing, have begun to enter clinical practice in a range of conditions. While the promise of such approaches is considerable, the challenges raised by integrating these technologies into the clinic are no less great. To a large extent, these challenges centre on professional decision-making: these technologies produce large amounts of data, some of which is clinically useful, some of which is not, but large amounts of which are uncertain. It is this uncertainty – whether or not a specific stretch of DNA is clinically relevant – and the decision-making processes that surround it that this project examines. Professor Hedgecoe uses a range of methods, including ethnographic observation and interviews with laboratory staff and clinical geneticists, to focus on the way professionals generate and interpret genomic data.