Like all forms of clinical practice, genomics has risks. Assessing, understanding and mitigating these risks is an essential component of clinical governance.
This webpage has tools to assist hospitals to understand and mitigate genomics-specific risks and issues within their own contexts. Because risks, severity and controls will vary across different health services, the tools are a starting point to spark discussion about local risks and appropriate mitigation strategies.
Risk mitigation is a key action in the Genomics and Your Hospital toolkit, which supports hospitals to plan and implement genomic care.
Why is risk mitigation important in genomics?
Identifying and understanding potential risks to the patient and organisation is essential for high-quality care in any setting.
Genomic care has some unique and uncommon features that may pose different types of risks in different contexts. This is particularly relevant as the use of genomics expands beyond clinical genetics services and into other specialties.
Who should be involved in identifying potential risks and controls?
This could be an ideal role for your hospital’s genomics leadership group, if one exists.
Because this group brings together stakeholders with diverse perspectives and expertise, it is well placed to identify patient and organisational risks that are relevant to the local context. The group is also well suited to recommend controls, or work with relevant teams to identify them.
If your hospital does not yet have a genomics leadership group, you may consider involving your existing quality committee, new technology committee, or equivalent body.
Tool: Guide to risk in genomic care
This guide can help you understand risks specific to genomic care and how to mitigate them. It is a starting point for discussion about genomic care risks specific to your hospital. Any risks identified should be tracked in your organisation’s existing clinical risk register or equivalent.
Tool: Template risk register
This template risk register can be used as a basis for your organisation’s risk tracking. It is an example of how your organisation can track risks specific to genomics. Please adapt or incorporate it to suit the needs and processes of your health service.