{"id":773,"date":"2026-02-03T08:41:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T06:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/permedcenter\/?p=773"},"modified":"2026-02-03T08:41:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T06:41:27","slug":"whole-genome-sequencing-added-to-estonias-national-list-of-health-care-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/permedcenter\/whole-genome-sequencing-added-to-estonias-national-list-of-health-care-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Whole genome sequencing added to Estonia\u2019s national list of health care services\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br><br>\u00a0<br>Estonia\u00a0operates\u00a0a solidarity-based, single-payer public healthcare system in which the <a href=\"https:\/\/tervisekassa.ee\/en\">Health Insurance Fund (Tervisekassa<\/a>) finances healthcare services nationwide. As of 1 January 2026, whole genome sequencing is included in the national list of health care services and is provided at no cost to the patient when medically indicated.\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>The introduction of WGS builds on Estonia\u2019s long-standing experience in medical genetics. Whole exome sequencing was incorporated into the list of health care services in 2014. Under the updated framework, genome sequencing will replace exome sequencing as the\u00a0most comprehensive\u00a0diagnostic approach\u00a0for inherited diseases\u00a0within Estonia\u2019s public healthcare system.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.etis.ee\/CV\/Sander_Pajusalu\/eng\/\">Sander Pajusalu<\/a>, MD, PhD, Head\u00a0of the\u00a0Genetics and Personalised Medicine Clinic at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kliinikum.ee\/en\/\">Tartu University Hospital<\/a>\u00a0and associate professor at <a href=\"https:\/\/ut.ee\/en\">University of Tartu<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0a\u00a0principal\u00a0investigator\u00a0within\u00a0TeamPerMed, commented: \u201cThis is an excellent outcome and a major step forward for clinical genetics in Estonia. Moving from exome to genome sequencing allows us to address complex diagnostic cases with greater precision.\u00a0Currently short-read sequencing is used in clinic, but\u00a0looking forward, we hope that, with the support of\u00a0TeamPerMed, we will be able to introduce long-read sequencing technologies into patient care.\u201d\u00a0<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/866\/sander-pajusalu_foto-timo-arbeiter-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Sander Pajusalu\" class=\"wp-image-776\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/866\/sander-pajusalu_foto-timo-arbeiter-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/866\/sander-pajusalu_foto-timo-arbeiter-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/866\/sander-pajusalu_foto-timo-arbeiter-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/866\/sander-pajusalu_foto-timo-arbeiter.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Genome sequencing is\u00a0reimbursed\u00a0when clinically\u00a0indicated\u00a0for the diagnosis of hereditary diseases or syndromes of unclear origin, based on a decision by an expert committee that includes at least the treating physician and a medical geneticist.\u00a0Moreover,\u00a0previous\u00a0reimbursement\u00a0code for exome sequencing was available to use only for diagnosing childhood onset diseases, while\u00a0now the age-of-onset restriction has been lifted for genome sequencing providing\u00a0new diagnostic avenues also for adult medicine.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The service may be applied up to three times per case to support family-based interpretation, reflecting standard practice in clinical genetics. Sequencing must be performed in accredited laboratories.\u00a0The law also\u00a0states\u00a0that genome sequencing data should be stored for\u00a0thrirty\u00a0years to\u00a0facilitate\u00a0reanalysis for\u00a0additional\u00a0diagnostic tests.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0Estonia\u00a0operates\u00a0a solidarity-based, single-payer public healthcare system in which the Health Insurance Fund (Tervisekassa) finances healthcare services nationwide. As of 1 January 2026, whole genome sequencing is included in the national list of health care services and is provided at no &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":771,"featured_media":774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/permedcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/permedcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/permedcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/permedcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/771"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/permedcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/permedcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":783,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/permedcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions\/783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/permedcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/permedcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/permedcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/permedcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}