PHG Foundation argues shared technical infrastructure is essential for deploying risk prediction tools in primary care

The PHG Foundation, based at the University of Cambridge, has published a blog commentary arguing that the technical and structural barriers to implementing disease risk prediction tools in primary care can only be addressed through shared, system-level deployment infrastructure — rather than tool-by-tool integration.

The piece addresses a widely recognised implementation challenge: whilst risk prediction models incorporating genomic and non-genomic variables have been developed and validated in research settings, their uptake in routine primary care has been limited. The authors contend that the problem is not principally one of model quality but of infrastructure — including interoperability with existing electronic health record systems, clinical workflow integration, and governance frameworks.

The commentary advocates for a shared deployment layer that multiple prediction tools could plug into, potentially reducing the per-tool overhead for NHS and equivalent primary care settings and creating consistent standards for how outputs are presented to clinicians.

This piece follows an item published in Genetic Current on 2026-09-02 covering PHG Foundation's earlier examination of structural barriers to risk prediction in primary care. The current commentary appears to extend that analysis with a specific focus on the infrastructure argument. Readers may wish to review both pieces together. It is directly relevant to researchers working on implementation science, health informaticists, policymakers, and UK primary care professionals interested in the operationalisation of genomic medicine.