TY - JOUR
AU - W. Evans
AU - J. Chauhan
AU - A. Imam
AU - J. Hayward
A1 - 
AB - Patients with rare diseases often encounter significant challenges, including poor coordination of healthcare services. The UK Rare Disease Framework emphasizes key priorities such as faster diagnoses, greater awareness among healthcare professionals, improved care coordination, and better access to specialist care. This National Health Service (NHS) project, based in the North East and Yorkshire Genomic Medicine Service (GMS), aimed to improve care coordination for patients with rare genetic diseases in primary care. The project focused on developing a generic clinical pathway to improve care coordination and transitions of care that could be applied to a range of rare diseases. Additionally, it sought to strengthen the integration between genomic services and primary care, fostering a more cohesive approach to patient management. The project mapped clinical care pathways for two exemplar rare genetic diseases, Achondroplasia and Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), this paper describes the NF1 pathway and broader learning from this project. The pathways focussed on identifying common clinical touchpoints with primary care and transitions between primary and specialty care. Key findings included the identification of gaps in care coordination, particularly during the transition from paediatric to adult services, and the development of a set of principles and a template for mapping other rare diseases. Feedback from a wide range of stakeholders, including clinicians across specialties and patient representatives, informed the refinement of the pathways. This project illustrates a systematic approach to enhancing care coordination for patients with rare genetic diseases through the mapping of clinical pathways and the development of primary care resources. The principles and template created can be adapted for other rare diseases, enabling the development of concise, disease-specific pathways. By prioritizing care coordination and transitions, and engaging a wide range of stakeholders in the process, this approach offers significant potential to improve the management of rare disease patients, especially during the critical transition from paediatric to adult care.
AD - Yorkshire Regional Genetic Service, Chapel Allerton Hospital, Leeds, LS7 4SA, UK. william.evans@nottingham.ac.uk.; NIHR School for Primary Care Research, Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK. william.evans@nottingham.ac.uk.; Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine, St Mary's Hospital, Manchester, M13 9WL, UK.; Yorkshire Regional Genetic Service, Chapel Allerton Hospital, Leeds, LS7 4SA, UK.
AN - 40608210
BT - J Community Genet
C5 - Medically Unexplained Symptoms
CP - 6
DA - Dec
DO - 10.1007/s12687-025-00811-5
DP - NLM
ET - 20250703
IS - 6
JF - J Community Genet
LA - eng
N2 - Patients with rare diseases often encounter significant challenges, including poor coordination of healthcare services. The UK Rare Disease Framework emphasizes key priorities such as faster diagnoses, greater awareness among healthcare professionals, improved care coordination, and better access to specialist care. This National Health Service (NHS) project, based in the North East and Yorkshire Genomic Medicine Service (GMS), aimed to improve care coordination for patients with rare genetic diseases in primary care. The project focused on developing a generic clinical pathway to improve care coordination and transitions of care that could be applied to a range of rare diseases. Additionally, it sought to strengthen the integration between genomic services and primary care, fostering a more cohesive approach to patient management. The project mapped clinical care pathways for two exemplar rare genetic diseases, Achondroplasia and Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), this paper describes the NF1 pathway and broader learning from this project. The pathways focussed on identifying common clinical touchpoints with primary care and transitions between primary and specialty care. Key findings included the identification of gaps in care coordination, particularly during the transition from paediatric to adult services, and the development of a set of principles and a template for mapping other rare diseases. Feedback from a wide range of stakeholders, including clinicians across specialties and patient representatives, informed the refinement of the pathways. This project illustrates a systematic approach to enhancing care coordination for patients with rare genetic diseases through the mapping of clinical pathways and the development of primary care resources. The principles and template created can be adapted for other rare diseases, enabling the development of concise, disease-specific pathways. By prioritizing care coordination and transitions, and engaging a wide range of stakeholders in the process, this approach offers significant potential to improve the management of rare disease patients, especially during the critical transition from paediatric to adult care.
PY - 2025
SN - 1868-310X (Print); 1868-310x
SP - 747
EP - 757+
ST - Enhancing care coordination for neurofibromatosis type 1 in primary care: insights and applications for rare diseases
T1 - Enhancing care coordination for neurofibromatosis type 1 in primary care: insights and applications for rare diseases
T2 - J Community Genet
TI - Enhancing care coordination for neurofibromatosis type 1 in primary care: insights and applications for rare diseases
U1 - Medically Unexplained Symptoms
U3 - 10.1007/s12687-025-00811-5
VL - 16
VO - 1868-310X (Print); 1868-310x
Y1 - 2025
ER -