Wales Infants and childreN’s Genome Service (WINGS) shortlisted for Advancing Healthcare Award (AHA)
Launched in August 2020, The Wales Infants and Children’s Genome Service, (WINGS) delivered by the All Wales Medical Genomics Service and hosted by Cardiff and Vale UHB, was the first in the UK to routinely offer whole genome sequencing DNA test to critically ill babies and children with unexplained diseases as part of a national programme within the NHS.
With approximately 6,000 to 8,000 known genetic diseases, the traditional approach to diagnosing rare conditions required running multiple tests, with majority of patients having to wait years for a successful diagnosis.
Welsh Government provided funding for the Illumina NovaSeq 6000 technology which has unprecedented next generation sequencing (NGS) capacity, and is capable of sequencing multiple human genomes in under 48 hours.
Speaking at the time of launch, Len Richards, Chief Executive Officer for C&V UHB said:
“The launch of WINGS is an exciting step forward for advancing our capacity to deliver precision medicine in Wales. The whole genome sequencing service is able to rapidly diagnose thousands of rare neurological, metabolic and other genetic diseases in a patient's DNA thereby offering significantly improved patient management, shorter hospital stays, fewer invasive procedures and significantly improved patient outcomes.”
WINGS is nominated in ‘Viapath award for innovation in healthcare science’ category which will be decided by a judging panel of experts on Monday 26th April with the winner announced during a virtual ceremony on May 20th.
