Preemptive Pharmacogenomic Testing Can Be Successfully Implemented, Integrated Into Care

Pharmacogenomic (PGx) testing is at the epicenter of personalized medicine, with the promise that accessible genomic information will lead to more informed prescribing practices—enabling prescription of the proper drug at the correct dose, the first try. A special issue of the American Journal of Medical Genetics (AJMG) Part C (Seminars in Medical Genetics) was recently dedicated to implementation of genomic medicine. DTET reviewed two of the special issue’s published case reports detailing development of preemptive PGx programs, the implementation of testing and reporting of identified variants, and the acceptance of the program by clinicians. The lessons learned by the University of Chicago (UC; Illinois) and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (Memphis, Tenn.) can provide valuable insight to other laboratories and institutions contemplating establishing such programs. In both of these cases, PGx decision support was successfully implemented due to the availability of data reported from high-quality genotyping arrays. University of Chicago The 1,200 Patients Project at UC was considered successful because “patient interest was robust, physician adoption of information was high, and results were routinely utilized,” reports Peter H. O’Donnell, M.D., principal investigator of the project in AJMG. The 1,200 Patients Project offers free, broad, preemptive PGx testing to outpatients seen […]