This document focuses on scientific progress, rather than policy developments, in this important field. There now seems little doubt that genomics and its related fields will play an increasing role in medical research and practice in the future. Given the many complexities of disease it is not surprising that progress in some areas of this field has been slow.
More rapid progress will be made towards the assessment of this approach to the common diseases of Western society by developing tighter partnerships between clinicians who have the day to day care of patients with these diseases and those who are studying them at the molecular level; lessons from several fields have made it absolutely clear that the phenotype must not be neglected as part of the basic investigations of the role of the genotype and related fields in the evolution of a more personalised approach to medical care.