Affiliations 

  • 1 The Golden Helix Foundation, London, UK. k.mitropoulos@goldenhelix.org
  • 2 University of Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands. hayat_aljaibeji@yahoo.com
  • 3 Laboratory of NeuroPsychiatric Genetics, Biomedical Sciences Research Group, School of Medicine, Universidad Antonio Nariño, Bogotá, Colombia. diego.forero@uan.edu.co
  • 4 Unidad de Genética, Grupo GENIUROS, Escuela de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia. paul.laissue@urosario.edu.co
  • 5 Division of Human Genetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa. ambroise.wonkam@uct.ac.za
  • 6 Genome Quebec, Montreal, Canada. clopezcorrea@gmail.com
  • 7 Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. zahurin@ummc.edu.my
  • 8 Department of Pathology, Medical Genomic Center, Ramathibodi Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. wasun.cha@mahidol.edu
  • 9 Laboratory for International Alliance on Genomic Research, RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences, Yokohama, Japan. mikelee@src.riken.jp
  • 10 CICAB Clinical Research Center, Extremadura University Hospital and Medical School, Badajoz, Spain. allerena@unex.es
  • 11 University of Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands. a.brand@maastrichtuniversity.nl
  • 12 Department of Pathology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates. bassam.ali@uaeu.ac.ae
  • 13 Department of Pharmacy, University of Patras School of Health Sciences, Patras, Greece. gpatrinos@upatras.gr
Hum Genomics, 2015 Jun 18;9:11.
PMID: 26081768 DOI: 10.1186/s40246-015-0033-3

Abstract

In recent years, the translation of genomic discoveries into mainstream medical practice and public health has gained momentum, facilitated by the advent of new technologies. However, there are often major discrepancies in the pace of implementation of genomic medicine between developed and developing/resource-limited countries. The main reason does not only lie in the limitation of resources but also in the slow pace of adoption of the new findings and the poor understanding of the potential that this new discipline offers to rationalize medical diagnosis and treatment. Here, we present and critically discuss examples from the successful implementation of genomic medicine in resource-limited countries, focusing on pharmacogenomics, genome informatics, and public health genomics, emphasizing in the latter case genomic education, stakeholder analysis, and economics in pharmacogenomics. These examples can be considered as model cases and be readily replicated for the wide implementation of pharmacogenomics and genomic medicine in other resource-limited environments.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.