The Provincial Genetics Program was recognized at the 2023 Amethyst Awards ceremony June 13.
Congratulations to Ontario Health’s Provincial Genetics Program, which along with the Ministry of Health’s Laboratories and Diagnostics Branch, recently received an Amethyst Group Award. This award for outstanding achievements by Ontario public servants recognizes the teams’ important work to advance Ontario’s genetics strategy by building a provincial genetics program.
The role of genetics in medicine has seen significant growth in Ontario, with over 200,000 genetic tests conducted each year. Unfortunately, patients often experience a fragmented patient journey, and siloed testing resulted in delays in diagnosis, access to treatments and missed opportunities to improve the health and well-being of patients and families.
The establishment of the Provincial Genetics Program in 2021 aimed to make Ontario a leader in this field, focused on aligning testing with the patient journey and fostering innovation and coordination among stakeholders.
Since then, Ontario Health’s Provincial Genetics Program has been recognized nationally and internationally as a leader for innovative patient-centred genetic services.
The program’s key achievements include:
- expanding access to genetic testing for rare and inherited conditions
- implementing comprehensive tumor biomarker testing
- developing guidelines for pharmacogenomics testing
This collaborative effort between Ontario Health and the Ministry builds on Ontario’s recognized expertise in delivering high-quality genetic services. By enabling Ontario to deliver genetic medicine equitably, responsibly and sustainably, people of all ages across the broad regions and diverse populations of the province have and will continue to benefit.