EGENIS seminar: "Mopping up the mainstream: on the turfing of clinical genomics", Prof Adam Hedgecoe (Cardiff University)

Over the past twenty years, the idea of mainstreaming genetic services within the NHS – i.e. allowing the commissioning of genetic tests without input from clinical genetics professionals – has gained ground in policy and practice. Drawing on ethnographic observation of meetings between clinical geneticists and other related staff, this paper shows how, despite scepticism, mainstreaming has entered professional discourse, how non-genetics professionals’ ordering of tests produces problems and how genetics professionals are then required to – in Charles Bosks’ memorable phrase – ‘mop up’ these mistakes. This paper then explores how this process shapes clinical geneticists’ understanding of other medics’ technical and moral limitations.