Genetic Testing in Emerging Economies (GenTEE)

Basic data for this project

Description

Background The emerging economies of China, East Asia, India, Latin America, the Middle East and South Africa all have started to put resources into the development of national biomedical genetic research infrastructures and are developing policies on how to translate genetic/genomic knowledge into their (public) health care systems. Due to the epidemiological transition these countries are facing an increasing portion of morbidity and mortality due to congenital and genetic conditions a rising need for genetic services and the development of quality standards for the provision of genetic testing services. Like in high-income countries, albeit often with fewer available resources, these countries need to develop the necessary infrastructure, tools, resources, guidelines and procedures leading to the establishment of quality genetic services and competence in genetic testing GenTEE is an international network that closely links leading academic institutions from Argentinia, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Oman, Philippines and South Africa with European efforts funded by the European FP7 programme to develop, harmonize, validate and standardize genetic testing services in the 27 EU Member States (EuroGentest2: http://www.eurogentest.org/ )The GenTEE network - a successor of the CAPABILITY network - is supported by the European Commission's Research Centre "Institute for Health and Consumer Protection" (IHCP: http://ihcp.jrc.ec.europa.eu) The main objectives of GenTEE are: to document and compare current practices and the state of genetics service provision in the participating countires to fill current knowledge gaps to promote an internationally shared set of basic quality standards for genetic testing and the provision of appropriate genetic services that will facilitate future joint research and the exchange and transfer of knowledge and technology.