Houldcroft et al, 2017

https://gyazo.com/dd94c085afce42d419bc1af636348025

Houldcroft, Beale and Breuer (2017) reviews the current and potential usage of genomics in a clinical setting. They compare the advantages and disadvantages of viral sequencing methods (i.e., metagenomic sequencing, PCR amplification sequencing and target enrichment sequencing). The authors present reasons for hospitals to utilize Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) of pathogens. They also present the limitations of viral sequencing compared to bacterial sequencing. Furthermore, the authors present the challenges of using genomics in a clinical setting: ethical issues and incidental findings, regulatory challenges and financial challenges. They conclude that new technologies (e.g., long-read low-cost sequencing) are needed to make viral WGS a reality in clinical settings, which they deem to have an "increasing clinical importance for diagnosis, disease management, molecular epidemiology and infection control."