Public Health Genomics

The main goal of the section is to further implement public health genomics in Europe by providing guidance in this emerging field. To reach this goal, the main aims of the EUPHA section on Public Health genomics are:

• to promote and strengthen research in the field of Public Health Genomics
• to provide a platform for the exchange of information, experience and research in the field of Public Health Genomics
• to encourage joint activities in the field of Public Health Genomics
• to develop and promote strategies to influence national, European and global policy-making in the field of Public Health Genomics

Following the four pillars of EUPHA the four strategic objectives of the section are:

Research objective: To provide a platform for the exchange of research and expertise, to stimulate new research activities and networking of researchers. To encourage the dissemination of scientific knowledge, experiences and best practices. To accelerate the translation of basic scientific findings into public health policy and practice.

Policy objective: To promote evidence-informed policy-making to ensure the timely, efficient, effective and social accountable translation of genome-based information and technolofgies (GBIT) into health policies for the benefit of population health. To ensure that Public Health Genomics as a holistic approach towards the understanding of diseaseses and health is placed on the top of Europe’s agenda.

Practice objective: To stimulate programme and policy activities. To build capacities between key stakeholders on regional, national, European and international level. To ensure early systematic dialogue between key stakeholders across public and private sectors by applying the innovative LAL (Learning – Adapting – Leveling) model. To establish personalised interventions as well as health protection activities.

Training and education objective: To stimulate training and capacity building to develop a skilled, diverse, and dynamic public health genomics workforce and network of multiplicatrs. To monitor the changing needs of public health experts for training and education. To develop guidance in close cooperation with ASPHER (Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region) and other initiatives such as GMA (Genomic Medicine Alliance).

The EUPHA public health genomics Section (EUPHA-PHG) was formally established at the 13th EUPHA annual conference in Graz, Austria, in 2005.

Rapid scientific advances in genomics such as in the light of epigenomics, microbiomics and systems biology supported by new ICT solutions and “Big Data” not only contribute to the understanding of disease mechanisms, but also provide the option of new promising applications in human health management during the whole life-course of a person. What was little time ago a vision for a new era of public health, in which advances from the -omic sciences would be integrated into strategies aiming at benefiting population health, is now responding to the very pressing need for the development of effective personalised healthcare going even beyond personalised medicine. For example, nutrigenomics is the field showing not only that nutrients play a central role in the stabilisation of the DNA but also that there is a need to understand the complexity of the interaction between nutrition, genomics and other environmental factors as well as their role in the development of diseases.

So far, all stakeholders including policy-makers and the private sector are struggling to translate the emerging knowledge into public health. Public Health Genomics (PHG) is the area of public health ensuring that scientific advances in genomics (“from cell…”) triggered by innovative technologies are timely, effectively and responsibly translated into health policies and practice for the benefit of population health (“…to society”). The implementation of PHG requires increased concerted activities such as the one of the Public Health Genomics European Network (PHGEN), the FP7 CSA on Personalised Medicine (PerMed) involving funding bodies or the European Flagship Pilot ITFoM on the future of medicine that aims to achieve the visionary goal of the “virtual human”.