Heather is a biomedical policy analyst who first developed an interest in policy when exploring the evidence base for secondary findings and associated risk estimates in individuals with and without a family history, particularly focusing on the return of results from the 100,000 Genomes Project. She then worked in the NHS supporting regional patient reporting of the cancer arm of the 100,000 Genomes Project seeing first-hand the challenges of implementing novel diagnostic pathways at scale. Heather joined PHG Foundation out of a desire to support efforts to bring genomic technologies to patients to inform diagnosis and treatment. She is contributing to the horizon-scanning innovations for health projects and our work on polygenic scores.
In addition to policy work Heather has an interest in increasing community engagement and awareness of rare disease and has supported events including RAREfest18 and Pint of Science Cambridge. She has an MPhil in Genomic Medicine from the University of Cambridge and a BSc in Medical Science (Human Genomics) from the University of Exeter.
- Biomarkers for personalised prevention of chronic diseases: a common protocol for three rapid scoping reviews. Syst Rev 13, 147 (2024). Plans-Beriso, E., Babb de Villiers, C., Petrova, D. Turner, H., Blackburn, L. et al. https://doi.org/10.1186/
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