I’m pleased to report that the International Health Economics Association (iHEA) have recently approved a new Special Interest Group (SIG) focusing on the Economics of Genomics and Precision Medicine (Econ-Omics). I am one of the three founders and lead conveners of this SIG, alongside Ilias Goranitis and Deirdre Weymann.

The aim of the Econ-Omics SIG is to bring together interested researchers around the world to build health economics capacity, advance methods, and facilitate communication and generation of the health economics evidence required to underpin the appropriate widespread use of genomic information in clinical practice. You can find more information about this SIG on our webpage, and you can stay up to date with our news and activities via our Twitter account here.

We have planned a number of exciting initiatives and activities and we’re looking forward to moving these forward over the coming months. These include:

• An Econ-Omics blog and a quarterly newsletter
• An annual symposium
• Coordination of organised sessions at the iHEA Congress
• A regular webinar series
• Investigating opportunities for cross-country and cross-regional mentoring of ECRs
• Sharing of teaching materials related to genomics and precision medicine

Membership is open to all iHEA members who are interested in the economics of genomics and precision medicine. You can join the SIG by logging into the iHEA website, selecting the “groups” section and clicking “request to join” the Economics of Genomics and Precision Medicine SIG (Econ-Omics). We particularly encourage expressions of interest to support the SIG in a convener role – please get in touch if this is of interest.