Joe Kai is Professor and Head of Primary Care at the University of Nottingham’s graduate medical school. He has been an inner city GP for over 15 years and currently practises in ethnically diverse central Derby. He is academic lead of PEGASUS, an NHS programme to support new genetic assessment and screening by health professionals, using haemoglobin disorders as a model (www.pegasus.nhs.uk). His health services research seeks to enhance care in disadvantaged and ethnically diverse contexts, with an increasing focus on applied genetics. This includes both the patient experience and translation of genetics into non-specialist health care practice. For more information, including publications, please check ‘Kai Joe’ on the staff list at www.nottingham.ac.uk/chs/lookup