Hilary Burton, a founding member of the PHG Foundation, was Director from 2010 to 2017. After stepping down as Director, she held the position of Consultant in Public Health until formally retiring from the organisation on 1 April 2019. As an Associate, Hilary will be working on My Healthy Future and our work on personalised prevention in breast cancer.
Hilary is a highly experienced public health physician who believes that genomic science can, and should be used by public health professionals alongside the social and environmental determinants of health to bring about improvements in population health. Her special interests include the integration of genomics within mainstream medicine, genetics education for health professionals, and genomics and the developing world.
Hilary trained at St Hugh’s College and The Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford and became a consultant in public health medicine in 1993. She was a member of the Department of Health’s Human Genomics Strategy Group and currently serves on the Joint Committee of Medical Genetics of the Royal Colleges and the Council for the British Society of Human Genetics. She is a Fellow of Hughes Hall, Cambridge, and holds an Honorary Lectureship at the University of Cambridge.
- Personalising breast cancer prevention – bridging the gap between research and policy
- Person centred healthcare
- My healthy future: Overdiagnosis
- Privacy and autonomy
- Health technologies and social impacts
- Personalising prevention for breast cancer
- Genomics in mainstream clinical pathways
- Personalised prevention in breast cancer – the policy landscape
- Developing effective ctDNA testing services for lung cancer
- Whole genome sequencing for breast cancer risk testing
- Pathogen Genomics Into Practice
- Genetic screening programmes: an international review of assessment criteria
- Enhanced Genetic Services Project
- Stratified Screening for Cancer
- Genomics in Medicine
- Next steps in the sequence
- Genetics and mainstream medicine: service development and integration
- Expanded newborn screening
- Independent response to House of Lords Science and Technology Committee Genomic Medicine report
- Tay Sachs Disease carrier screening in the Ashkenazi Jewish population
- Heart to Heart: inherited cardiovascular conditions services
- Genetic ophthalmology in focus
- Evaluation of array-CGH for chromosomal abnormalities in clinical practice
- Metabolic pathways: networks of care
- Addressing Genetics, Delivering Health
- Fat mice provide genetic clues to obesity puzzle
- Nutrigenomics – looking at the individual within their nutritional environment
- Science and Health under the Brexit government
- Machines that learn healthcare
- Clinical proteome analysis – the key to personalised medicine
- Science and health in Brexit bound UK
- A new manifesto for health innovation and patient benefit
- Impact of In Vitro Diagnostic Devices regulatory reforms on genetic testing
- Alzheimer’s disease – a paradigm for personalised prevention?
- PanelApp – the catalyst to drive improved gene panel testing?
- Precision medicine vs. public health: a false dichotomy?
- Progress in mainstreaming genomics into clinical practice
- Infection control leads the way for the use of pathogen genomics
- This time, it’s personal: health policy and disease prevention
- Making sense of science spending
- Failure to innovate: a risk the NHS cannot afford
- Big data’s big issues
- The Spending Review: why health and care will not go hungry – yet
- Tackling TB: A step closer to a genomics-led solution?
- Responsible, proportionate data sharing for better and safer genetic services
- Is the NHS England Mandate an agenda for privatisation?
- Putting the ‘precision’ into Precision Medicine
- Accelerating access to healthcare innovations
- Illumina reaches for the cancer testing GRAIL
- Tackling infectious diseases – lessons from emergencies
- Genome editing moves into the spotlight
- Will 2016 be the year of digital health technology?
- The Cancer Drugs Fund: saviour or stumbling block?
- Moving pathogen genomics out of the ‘too difficult’ pile
- Healthcare futures
- Complex diseases need complex solutions – including genomics
- NHS uptake of innovations: clinical researchers are not the answer
- The global genomics race: Asia, the UK and beyond
- The microbiome – next frontier in tackling disease?
- FSA report brings wider failure to implement pathogen genomics into focus
- Personalised medicine in the US: does higher spending mean better care?
- The Smartphone revolution – a new paradigm for healthcare?
- Pathogen surveillance using WGS: forewarned is forearmed
- Our genomes unite us all…but can they unite the health service?
- Epigenome analysis: Another tool in the personalised medicine kit?
- Innovations for infectious disease: the need for speed
- 3D printing: shaping future healthcare?
- No room for risk aversion in healthcare innovation
- The global battle against AMR – can technology lead the way?
- Liquid biopsy – liquid gold for cancer management?
- Precision cancer medicine – close at hand or just out of reach?
- All patients need faster access to useful medical innovations
- Is a synthetic human genome project a step too far?
- Genome editing: promising, but beware the hype
- Get on board with genomics – a call to all clinicians
- After the referendum
- Laying the foundations for genomic medicine in France
- Stem cell therapies – balancing risks and benefits
- Review of data security, consent and opt-outs
- Health data security: a question of cost
- Democratising diagnostics – the future is portable
- Will new technologies normalise sex selective abortion?
- Proposed EU Data Protection reform and public health genomics
- Are European politicians right to oppose 3-person IVF?
- Ending a diagnostic odyssey
- Public Health England Initiative for Infectious Disease Genomics
- Stem cell milestones for regenerative medicine
- Drivers and barriers for companion diagnostics
- PHG Foundation response to the HGSG report
- Private cord blood banking in the NHS?
- Introducing the Cloud Infrastructure for Microbial Bioinformatics (CLIMB)
- Why the stakes are too high to not share genomic data
- A new direction for life sciences and health in the UK
- CLIMB – a timely resource for microbial genomics
- A gloomy outlook for UK science after Brexit
- Who is playing the long game?
- Contextualising our genomes – finding patients like you
- A commentary on Khoury & Galea Will Precision Medicine Improve Population Health
- Creating an effective childhood obesity strategy
- Rise of the super-sized genome projects
- How genomic medicine is modernising nephrology
- One year of Zika in Brazil: what have we learned?
- Precision public health: a conversation
- Childhood obesity and new technologies
- It’s time to get on with IT in healthcare
- Innovation and economising: STPs and NHS Test Beds
- AMR tops the international agenda
- Synthetic biology – hot or not?
- Nanomedicine: laying tiny foundations for a big future in personalised medicine
- Rights, responsibilities and rhetoric: health and politics
- Conservative Party Conference fails to answer the questions
- The ethics of genome editing: where now?
- The long road to safer antenatal choices
- A new path to smarter drug prescribing and funding?
- Implantable biosensors – is the future continuous monitoring?
- Pathology and patient perspectives for clinical genomics policy
- Personalised prevention and public health: an urgent agenda
- Ethical implementation of the genomics revolution
- Welcome UK moves to revolutionise uptake of innovations in healthcare
- Governmental view on shaking up science advice for health
- Under-represented community genomics; East London takes centre stage
- Time for a moratorium on human germline genome editing?
- New strategy for uptake of regenerative medicine
- NHS England strategy: foundations for improvement
- Sequencing the nation: Iceland’s genomic profile
- Towards implementation of comprehensive breast cancer risk prediction tools in health care for personalised prevention
Moorthie S, Babb de Villiers C, Burton H, Kroese M, Antoniou A.C., Bhattacharjee P, Garcia-Closas M, Hall P, Schmidt M.K.. Preventive Medicine, Vol 159. 6 May 2022. - Risk stratification, genomic data and the law.
Hall A, Finnegan T, Chowdhury S, Dent T, Kroese M, Burton H.
J Community Genet. 2018; https://doi.org/10.1007/s12687-018-0358-4. [Epub ahead of print] - Implications of using whole genome sequencing to test unselected populations for high risk breast cancer genes: a modelling study
Warren-Gash C, Kroese M, Burton H, Pharoah P.
Hered Cancer Clin Pract. 2016 Jun; 1;14:12. - Preparing clinicians for genomic medicine
Burton H, Slade I.
Postgrad Med J. 2016 Jul;92(1089):369-71. doi: 10.1136/postgradmedj-2016-133962. Epub 2016 Mar 21. - Personalized medicine: what’s in a name?
Burton H, Hall A, Kroese M, Pokorska-Bocci A, Sagoo G, Stewart A.
Personalised Medicine. 2014; 11(2):197-210. - Systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the birth prevalence of five inherited metabolic diseases
Moorthie S, Cameron L, Sagoo G, Bonham J, Burton H.
Journal of Inherited Metabolic Disease. 2014 Nov; 37(6):889-898. - The impact of genetics on public health practice
Abubakar I, Burton H, Jackson C.
British Medical Bulletin. 2014 Oct; 112(1):37-46. - Beyond public health genomics: proposals from an international working group
Boccia S, Mc Kee M, Adany R, Boffetta P, Burton H, Cambon-Thomsen A, Cornel MC, Gray M, Jani A, Knoppers BM, Khoury MJ, Meslin EM, Van Dijn CM, Villari P, Zimmern R, Cesario A, Puggina A, Colotto M, Ricciardi W.
Eur J Public Health. 2014 Dec; 24(6):877-9. - A Toolkit to assess health needs for congenital disorders in low- and middle-income countries: an instrument for public health action
Nacul L,Stewart A, Alberg C, Chowdhury S, Burton H, Darlison MW, Grollman C, Hall A, Modell B, Moorthie S, Sagoo G, .
Journal of Public Health. 2014 June; 36(2):243-50. doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdt048 : May 10, 2013 [Epub ahead of print] - Personalised medicine in the UK: challenges of implementation and impact on healthcare system
Burton H, Hall A, Kroese M, Pokorska-Bocci A, Sagoo G.
Genome Medicine. 2014 Apr 25; 6(4):28. - What ethical and legal principles should guide the genotyping of children as part of a personalised screening programme for common cancer?
Burton H, Chowdhury S, Hall A, Pashayan N, Pharoah P.
Journal of Medical Ethics. 2014 Mar; 40(3):163-7. - Familial Hypercholesterolaemia: a pressing issue for European health care
Aitman T, Brice P, Burton H, Edwards C, Humphries S.
Atherosclerosis. 2013 December; 231(2): 223-226 - Public health genomics and personalised prevention: lessons from the COGS project
Burton H, Chowdhury S, Dent T, Hall A, Pashayan N, Pharoah P.
Journal of Internal Medicine. 2013 Nov; 274(5):451-6 - Policy challenges of clinical genome sequencing
Birney E, Burton H, Cunningham F, Firth H, Hurst J, Middleton A, Wright C.
British Medical Journal. 2013 Nov 22; 347:f6845. - Life insurance: genomic stratification and risk classification
Burton H, Chowdhury S, Dent T, Feze I, Foulkes W, Hall A, Hamet P, Joly Y, Kirwan N, Knoppers B, Macdonald A, Pashayan N, Simard J, Van Hoyweghen I.
European Journal of Human Genetics. 2013 Oct 16. doi: 10.1038/ejhg.2013.228 - Health needs assessment for congenital anomalies in middle-income countries: Examining the case for neural tube defects in Brazil
Schuler-Faccini L, Sanseverino M, de Rocha Azevedo L, Moorthie S, Alberg C, Burton H, Chowdhury S, Sagoo G, Nacul L.
J Community Genet. 2013 Aug 30. [Epub ahead of print] - Implementing risk-stratified screening for common cancers: a review of potential ethical, legal and social issues
Burton H, Chowdhury S, Dent T, Hall A, Pashayan N, Pharoah P.
Journal of Public Health (Oxf). 2013 Aug 28. - Public health implications from COGS and potential for risk stratification and screening
Burton H, Chowdhury S, Dent T, Hall A, Pashayan N, Pharoah P.
Nature Genetics. 2013 Apr; 45(4):349-51 doi: 10.1038/ng.2582. PubMed PMID: 23535723 - Incorporating genomics into breast and prostate cancer screening: assessing the implications
Burton H, Chowdhury S, Dent T, Hall A, Hall P, Lyratzopoulos G, Pashayan N, Pharoah P.
Genetics in Medicine. 2013 Feb 14 doi: 10.1038/gim.2012.167. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 23412607. - Stratified cancer screening: the practicalities of implementation.
Burton H, Chowdhury S, Dent T, Eccles D, Eeles R, Hall A, Jbilou J, Lyratzopoulos G, Pashayan N, Pharoah P, Rafi I, Segnan N, T.
Public Health Genomics. 2013;16(3):94-9. - End of the Beginning and Public Health Pharmacogenomics: Knowledge in ‘Mode 2’ and P5 Medicine1
Burton H, Dove E, Fisher E, Masellis M, Ozdemir V, Warnich L, Wright C.
Current Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine. 2012 Jan 1; 10(1);1-6. - Inherited cardiomyopathies
Alberg C, Behr E, Burton H, Raju H, Sagoo G.
British Medical Journal. 2011 Nov 21; 343:d6966. doi: 10.1136/bmj.d6966 - Personalised Medicine: Lessons from Birth Defects and Single Gene Disorders
Burton H, Sanderson S.
Current Pharmacogenetics & Personalised Medicine. 2011; 9(2): 80-83. - Polygenic susceptibility to prostate and breast cancer: implications for personalised screening
Burton H, Chowdhury S, Dent T, Duffy S, Easton D, Eeles R, Neal D, Pashayan N, Pharoah P.
British Journal of Cancer. Advance online publication, 2011 April 5; doi:101038/bjc2011.118 - Legal and ethical implications of inherited cardiac disease in clinical practice within the UK
Burton H, Hall A.
Journal of Medical Ethics. 2010; 36: 762-766. - A framework for the prioritization of investment in the provision of genetic tests
Alberg C, Burton H, Kroese M, Lakshman R, Whittaker J.
Public Health Genomics. 2010; 13 (7-8) 538-43. - Tay Sachs disease carrier testing in the UK Jewish population
Alberg C, Burton H, Levene S.
British Journal of Midwifery. 2010; 18(4):220-224. - Realising the benefits of genetics for health
Brice P, Burton H, Stewart A, Wright C.
The Lancet. 2010 Oct; 23;376(9750):1370-1. - Burton H, Stewart A. Mainstreaming genetics: a comparative review of clinical services for inherited cardiovascular conditions in the UK. Public Health Genomics. 2010;13(4):235-45. Epub 2010 Apr 15
- A toolkit for incorporating genetics into mainstream medical services: Learning from service development pilots in England
Bennett C, Burke S, Burton H, Farndon P.
BMC Health Services Research. 2010 May; 14;10:125. - Inherited cardiovascular conditions: the challenges of genomic medicine
Alberg C, Burton H, Hall A, Inherited Cardiovascular Conditions Services , Sagoo G, Stewart A.
Heart. 2010 Mar; 96(6):474-6 - Public Health Genomics: The Interface with Public Health Intelligence and the Role of Public Health Observatories
Burton H, Ells L, Flowers J, Pencheon D, Wilkinson J.
Public Health Genomics. 2010 Mar 29; [Epub ahead of print]. - Developing stakeholder involvement for introducing public health genomics into public policy
Adams M, Bunton R, Burton H, Schroeder-Baeck P.
Public Health Genomics. 2009; 12:11-19. - Professional education and training in public health genomics: a working policy developed on behalf of Public Health Genomics European Network
Adams M, Burton H.
Public Health Genomics. 2009; 12(4):216-24. - A new strategic phase for genomic medicine in UK health services
Burton H, Wright C, Zimmern R.
Genome Medicine. 2009 Oct; 12;1(10):93 - Genetics in ophthalmology: equity in service provision?
Alberg C, Burton H, Moore T.
Journal of Public Health. 2009; doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdp110 - Array CGH in patients with learning disability (mental retardation) and congenital anomalies: updated systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 studies and 13,926 subjects
Burton H, Butterworth A, Higgins J, Sagoo G, Sanderson S, Shaw-Smith C.
Genetics in Medicine. 2009 Mar; 11(3): 139-46 - The use of cell-free fetal nucleic acids in maternal blood for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis
Burton H, Wright C.
Human Reproduction Update. 2008 Oct 22 [Epub ahead of print]. - Competences, education and support for new roles in cancer genetics services: outcomes from the cancer genetics pilot projects
Bennett C, Burton H, Farndon P.
Familial Cancer. 2007; 6(2):171-80 - The frequency of inherited metabolic disorders in the West Midlands, United Kingdom
Burton H, Green A, Preece M, Sanderson S.
Archives of Disease in Childhood. 2006. - Needs assessment and review of services for people with inherited metabolic disease in the United Kingdom
Burton H, Lee P, Sanderson S, Shortland G.
Journal of Inherited Metabolic Disease. 2006. - Education in the genetics era: genetics education for health professionals – an essential component of genetics policy
Burton H, Zimmern R.
Medical Education. 2005; 39(3):243-4 - Postregistration genetics education provision for nurses, midwives and health visitors
Burton H, Metcalfe A.
Journal of Advanced Nursing. 2003; 44(4):350-9 - Genetics education for nurses, midwives and health visitors
Burton H, Metcalfe A, Shuttleworth A.
Professional Nurse. 2003; 18(12):676-80 - Gene genies
Burton H, Kroese M.
Health Service Journal. 2003; 113(5868):29 - The NHS in the era of genetics: implications for community practitioners
Brice P, Burton H, Watson L.
Community Practitioner. 2003;76(8):288-90 - Genetics education for midwives
Burton H, Shuttleworth A.
Royal College of Midwives. 2003; 6(4):162-4 - From Mendel to the Human Genome Project: the implications for nurse education
Burton H, Stewart A.
Nurse Education Today. 2003; 23(5):380-5 - Genetics education for primary health care nurses
Burton H, Shuttleworth A.
Primary Health Care. 2003; 13(4):35-8
