Capstones to Careers: Keeping Up with Luis Peña Martínez

Luis Gerardo Peña Martínez is a senior specialist in the Provincial Genetics Program (PGP) at Ontario Health. Prior to becoming a senior specialist with the PGP, Peña Martínez worked for 18 months with the Ontario Ministry of Health at the Laboratories and Diagnostics Branch. He got his start with the Ministry of Health in January 2021 when matched with the site for his Medical Genomics practicum. He completed this four-month placement in April 2021 and subsequently graduated from the M.H.Sc. Medical Genomics program. After graduation, Luis was hired on as a program analyst for the Ministry of Health, having expanded responsibilities in implementing policy development for out-of-province and out-of-country genetic testing. To hear more about his early experiences in the field, read Peña Martínez’s Capstones to Career feature from 2021!

Luis’ role as a public servant has seen significant transformation since last year. He is excited about the opportunity to be a senior specialist with Ontario Health PGP, which currently sees him working closely with Clinical Leads to guide and coordinate the Neurodevelopmental Genetics, Neurogenetics, and Cardiogenetics Expert Groups, as well as the Patients and Caregivers' Genetics Reference Table. Described as being at the interface of research, emerging evidence, and government, Luis notes that the PGP focuses on “developing evidence-based guidelines to ensure the provision of comprehensive, coordinated, evidence-based genetic services for Ontarians”. The Genetics Expert Groups draw from subject matter experts to propose strategies required by policy actioners to improve the genetics healthcare system. Currently, big steps are being taken at the provincial level to keep up with advancements in genetic testing: “The field of genetics is moving fast […]. New tests are coming up, gene-disease discoveries are constantly published […], and the province is doing what it needs to do to keep up with that,” says Peña Martínez. Luis and his team collaborate with physicians, genetic counsellors, researchers, and laboratory experts from the province to develop genetic testing recommendations within each expert group. Further, a lot of preparatory work is required to run these expert groups, from current-state analysis to jurisdictional and horizon scans: “We need to understand where we’re standing and what's coming to define the clinical areas to prioritize and how to best support development." The first three expert groups were selected to address patient populations that will benefit from having comprehensive, standardized, and high-quality genetic services.

Originally from Mexico, Luis appreciates the insights his senior specialist role with the Ontario Health PGP brings in terms of getting to know the inner workings of the Canadian public health system. He expressed a sense of gratitude as he reflected on his practicum experience: “I had mostly wet-lab experience, so taking the practicum at the Ministry of Health was a leap of faith – jumping into policy was sort of a ‘YOLO’ situation for me in which I found the passion that comes with being able to drive change and improve patients' lives at the systems-level.” Luis found being at the boundary of knowledge in his previous experiences doing laboratory benchtop science to be rewarding and finds genetic testing policy work to be similarly gratifying: “There is a big need for people with genomics understanding to mediate between academic or clinical institutions and the government. Graduates from programs like ours have great potential to come forward and apply their knowledge to deeply impact the system.”

We are so honoured to have had the opportunity to hear from Luis again and wish for his continued success with the Provincial Genetics Program at Ontario Health.