Eliciting parental preferences and values for the return of additional findings from genomic sequencing

Ilias Goranitis; Yan Meng; Melissa Martyn; Stephanie Best; Sophie Bouffler; Yvonne Bombard; Clara Gaff; Zornitza Stark

doi:10.1038/s41525-024-00399-8

Eliciting parental preferences and values for the return of additional findings from genomic sequencing

NPJ Genom Med. 2024 Feb 14;9(1):10. doi: 10.1038/s41525-024-00399-8.

Authors

Ilias Goranitis^{1

2

3}, Yan Meng⁴, Melissa Martyn^{5

6

7}, Stephanie Best^{8

9

10

11}, Sophie Bouffler^{8

5}, Yvonne Bombard^{12

13}, Clara Gaff^{5

6

7}, Zornitza Stark^{8

5

7}

Affiliations

¹ Health Economics Unit, Centre for Health Policy, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. ilias.goranitis@unimelb.edu.au.
² Australian Genomics, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. ilias.goranitis@unimelb.edu.au.
³ Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. ilias.goranitis@unimelb.edu.au.
⁴ Health Economics Unit, Centre for Health Policy, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁵ Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁶ Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁷ Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁸ Australian Genomics, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁹ Department of Health Services Research, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
¹⁰ Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Alliance, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
¹¹ Sir Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Department of Oncology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
¹² Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹³ Genomics Health Services Research Program, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, 30 Bond Street, Toronto, ON, Canada.

Abstract

Health economic evidence is needed to inform the design of high-value and cost-effective processes for returning genomic results from analyses for additional findings (AF). This study reports the results of a discrete-choice experiment designed to elicit preferences for the process of returning AF results from the perspective of parents of children with rare conditions and to estimate the value placed on AF analysis. Overall, 94 parents recruited within the Australian Genomics and Melbourne Genomics programmes participated in the survey, providing preferences in a total of 1128 choice scenarios. Statistically significant preferences were identified for the opportunity to change the choices made about AF; receiving positive AF in person from a genetic counsellor; timely access to a medical specialist and high-quality online resources; receiving automatic updates through a secure online portal if new information becomes available; and lower costs. For AF uptake rates ranging between 50-95%, the mean per person value from AF analysis was estimated at AU$450-$1700 (US$300-$1140). The findings enable the design of a value-maximising process of analysis for AF in rare-disease genomic sequencing.