About Us

Dr Hilary Burton – Programme Director

Hilary Burton has shaped the Foundation’s work from its earliest beginnings. As Programme Director Hilary now oversees the Foundation’s work programme that combines scientific and ELSI issues with public health and clinical content .

Hilary’s aim is to transfer scientific developments in genetics into clinical applications. Her work involves bringing together health care providers, governmental agencies and patient groups to define project objectives, undertake needs assessments and service reviews and make recommendations for the improvement of health services based on research evidence.

Hilary led a strategic review of education in genetics for health professionals in the UK. She has also established PHG Foundation as a high-quality training location for trainees in public health, and oversees our contribution to the University of Cambridge’s Masters in Public Health programme . She holds an Honorary Lectureship at the University of Cambridge.

Hilary did her medical training at Oxford University and is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine. Since 1983 she has worked on strategy development in various areas of public health medicine including disabilities, children's services, women's services, screening programmes, nutrition and cancer services. She joined the Public Health Genetics Unit in 1997, since when she has extended her expertise to include genetics and genomics, and pioneering needs assessment for genetics within mainstream medicine.

Hilary is member of a number of committees and organisations including the Joint Committee on Medical Genetics (JCMG) of the Royal College of Physicians, the Councils of the British Society for Human Genetics (BSHG) and the Society for Genomics Policy and Population Health (SGPPH). She also serves as an observer for the Genetic Interest Group (GIG).

Her recent projects include a review of the current screening programme for Tay Sachs Disease for the UK National Screening Committee, and a study of the diagnostic use of cell free fetal DNA in collaboration with the Joint Committee on Medical Genetics. Work on a needs assessment and review of UK services related to cardiovascular genetics is nearing completion .

Selected recent publications:

• Moore T and Burton H.  Genetic ophthalmology in focus: A needs assessment and review of specialist services for genetic eye disorders PHG Foundation. (2008)
• Burton H.  A Testing Issue: PHG Foundation’s Programme Director, considers the impact of recent developments in prenatal genetic testing  Public Service Review: Central Government Issue 17 (2008)
• Burton, H. and Adams M.   Professional education and training in public health genomics: a working policy developed on behalf of the Public Health Genomics European Network  Public Health Genomics (2009) 12(4):216-24
• Burton H, Adams M, Bunton R, Schroeder-Baeck, P.  Developing stakeholder involvement for introducing public health genomics into public policy  Public Health Genomics (2008) Sep 3 [Epub ahead of print]  
• Burton H. Metabolic pathways: networks of care (2005)

Selected recent presentations:

• Keynote speech to GIG at their annual conference, Genetics: A Challenge for Health Services.  6 October 2008
• Presentation at the Final PHGEN conference in Istanbul, Public Health Genomics in Europe - how it started.  26-28 November 2008
• International meeting on Transitions in Metabolic Disease, London.  Inherited metabolic disease: new opportunities, new challenges for the NHS (January 2009).

Please visit PHG Foundation’s resources page for a list of our publications and other work by members of our staff.