5.4 Should I consider outsourcing?

If you are beginning to contemplate the utility of WGS for your AMR surveillance system, you might consider outsourcing some or all the tasks associated with the WGS process. Commercial sequencing services can conduct tasks ranging from sample preparation to sequencing to basic or complex bioinformatic analysis. There are also services and genomic platforms focused on bioinformatic analysis that may be of interest to new entrants to WGS.

By outsourcing your WGS needs at first, you will be able to demonstrate to key policy-makers and other stakeholders the value of WGS for your surveillance. Commercial providers will also have fast turnaround time for analysis, provide high-quality results, and can scale up or down based on your current workload.

However, outsourcing comes with its own challenges. For example:

• shipping biological materials can be tricky and expensive
• material transfer agreements must be negotiated between the laboratory providing the sample and the sequencing or analytical company
• governments may not allow or may discourage samples leaving their national borders.

All these considerations must be taken into account when considering outsourcing WGS services.

Having now considered the costs of WGS, the course finishes with a look at the economic advantages of introducing this technology.