by brant bullard | Jul 4, 2016 | Journal articles
As many as 10 percent of people do not receive pain relief from opioids.
The pain was too intense to ignore. Sixteen years later, Tony Cirrincione still remembers it. He was on a weekend ski trip, and he staggered into the ski lodge, leaving his wife in charge of their son and the five other Cub Scouts they’d brought along. Wincing at the dull ache in his back, he tried to stretch away what had to a muscle cramp. But the bursts of pain grew only more intense, erupting at more frequent intervals. Soon he was in the emergency room in Chicago. Kidney stones that had him doubled over the triage station. Waiting for the prescription opioid Dilaudid (hydromorphone) to take hold. But it never did.
According to Genome Magazine, as many as 10 percent of people do not receive pain relief from opioids. That’s a staggering statistic in a country where more than 75 million people live with chronic pain. Many individuals, like Cirrincione, who don’t respond to certain prescription pain relievers have no idea why. But a type of genetic testing is bringing answers to a growing number of them. (more…)
by brant bullard | Sep 14, 2015 | News
Clay Bullard, CEO of PGX Medical, designed a genetic test that allows a doctor to quickly identify the best drug to prescribe for patients who suffer from chronic blood and heart conditions. (Photo by Brent Fuchs)
EDMOND – Dr. Stuart Schrader has a new method to improve the way he prescribes drugs. The owner of Crossway Medical Clinic uses a genetic test to understand how a patient metabolizes some medications, tailoring prescriptions for individuals.
The test allows Schrader to quickly identify the best drug to prescribe for patients who suffer from chronic blood and heart conditions, rather than a trial-and-error basis, he said. It also is more effective in determining drug interactions and is better than using a physician’s desk reference, he said.
Clay Bullard, CEO of
PGX Medical, designed the test and works with physicians to recommend its use. A simple cheek swab gathers information for a lab in California to examine 19 genes. Those genes are commonly associated with arthritis pain; anxiety, depression and psychosis; high blood pressure and high cholesterol; attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; and other conditions.
Pharmacogenetic testing has been around for about 19 years, but recently the cost for genetic testing dropped dramatically, he said. Bullard had the idea to develop the company when his wife’s physician recommended the test about 10 years ago. She wasn’t getting results from her rheumatoid arthritis treatment, and the doctor said the genetic screening could better determine which medicine would work well for her.
Bullard said he hoped more doctors will choose the test, particularly for the geriatric population. He is working with the state Department of Health to educate nursing home owners about the test, as a way to reduce the number of psychotropic drugs taken by people in assisted living centers.
Yet geriatric researcher Mark Stratton disagrees that the test is useful for a broad swath of the elderly. The University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy professor wrote in an emailed statement to The Journal Record that pharmacogenetic testing research is an emerging area, but evidence doesn’t yet support that testing for geriatric patients.
That type of genetic testing is useful for patients with potentially terminal illnesses, such as AIDS or breast cancer, whose diseases have not otherwise responded to typical treatment, Stratton wrote. Pharmacogenetic screening provides one piece of information in a very complex medical situation, and a patient’s response to medication is affected by more than one’s genes, he wrote.
Schrader said the test has been useful for geriatric patients to determine the minimal dose for chronic conditions. In addition, the test has been effective for patients who suffer from migraine headaches and haven’t responded to typical treatment, he said. In four months he’s recommended the test for more than 200 patients at his primary care practice in Oklahoma City.
For patients whose conditions haven’t been successfully treated with commonly prescribed medications, the test is important to help convince the patient to allow him to continue looking for the right drug, Schrader said.
“When one type of medication didn’t work well and they’ve given up on that class of drugs entirely, we can show them they can work with these genetic tests,” he said. “We can help ease the anxiety and show how the medicine will metabolize in the body.”
by brant bullard | Jun 27, 2014 | Metabolic Validation Program
PGx President, Clay Bullard
If you attended the June 12th Oklahoma State Department of Health Provider Training in Tulsa, you heard PGx Medical President, Clay Bullard speak on Metabolic Validation. Clay will also be speaking at the July 22nd Provider Training meeting in Midwest City, OK.
Don’t get left behind
“Approximately 40% of the homes that attended the Provider Training in Tulsa are currently testing with PGx Medical and many more have contacted us to learn more about Metabolic Validation,” said Bullard.
PGx Medical is a team of healthcare consultants who will provide your home with the necessary tools to help in the reduction of unnecessary medications, which in turn, will provide your residents with a better quality of life.
Right Drug, Right Dose, Right Resident
If you are not currently testing and would like more information on how to become a PGx Certified Metabolic Validation Home, let us know. Our team will walk you through the process and be available as a continued resource to answer any questions you might have.
PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
www.pgxmed.com
by brant bullard | Apr 22, 2014 | Metabolic Validation Program
Validation
Who doesn’t want validation for the work they are doing? As a healthcare professional it is important to know that the medications you are prescribing your patients are working. If not, you begin the “trial & error” process. But by giving a patient a drug that doesn’t metabolize in their system, it could cause adverse reactions or just not metabolize so the patient never improves.
If you’re not 100% sure your patients are taking medications that are working, how can you make an informed decision?
Health care professionals go to work every day wanting to provide the highest quality, safest, most appropriate care for their patients. The bottom line is that patients should not go to a hospital or other health care setting with a fear that their health will not improve. Unfortunately, in the past there was no way of knowing for sure that a drug wasn’t working. A patient may try multiple drugs before they found one that worked. That isn’t the case any longer.
At PGx, we recognized a need for personalized medicine and we also understand that we are just touching the surface of what is yet to come.
Making More Informed Treatment Decisions for Your Patients
Not all patients respond appropriately to a standard, One Size Fits All dose. Pharmacogenetic testing provides a lifetime of protection against drug toxicity or lack of drug efficacy. This simple test will help you determine a patient’s drug sensitivity allowing you to provide better care.
Implementing the Program
The PGx Metabolic Validation Program allows a healthcare professional to gain insightful information via a simple buccal swab. The swab is then analyzed at the laboratory and a report is sent directly to the medical facility to be utilized when treating the patient. This once in a lifetime test will help physicians make informed decisions when treating patients to: reduce side effects, increase clinical response and gives health care physicians collaborative access to pinpoint appropriate medications for specific diagnoses.
We’ve made it easy to incorporate pharmacogenetics into your clinic, company, pharmacy or center. The ultimate goal for PGx Medical is to help you provide better healthcare and improve quality of life for your patients or residents.
If it costs your facility nothing, can yield life changing benefits, makes staff and consulting jobs easier and can be completed in less than a day, what is the downside and why would you not want this tool for your patients?
For more information on how you can implement this no cost program into your facility, email: info@pgxmed.com, call 405-509-5112 or go to www.pgxmed.com.
by brant bullard | Apr 21, 2014 | Metabolic Validation Program
In what ways can a doctor use pharmacogenetics to help treat their patients?
Pharmacogenetics can be used by doctors to identify the optimal dose and/or medicine for each patient.
The right dose
Dosage is usually based on factors such as age, weight, and liver and kidney function. But for someone who breaks down a drug quickly, a typical dose may be ineffective. In contrast, someone who breaks down a drug more slowly may need a lower dose to avoid accumulating toxic levels of the drug in the bloodstream. A pharmacogenetic test can help reveal the right dose for individual patients.
The right drug—for depression
Depression can be treated with a variety of different medicines, and it is often time-consuming and difficult to find the drug(s) that works best for each person. In the future, genetic testing may take some of the guesswork out of choosing a drug regimen. These tests are likely to involve analyzing a person’s liver enzymes, especially those in the cytochrome P450 family, which are largely responsible for processing antidepressants.
The right drug—for cardiovascular disease
Statins, the most widely prescribed drugs worldwide, help prevent cardiovascular disease by reducing the level of “bad” cholesterol in the bloodstream. While statins work well for many patients, responses are highly variable and doctors must adjust the dosage for each person.
Researchers have discovered that variants in a number of molecules—including those that break down or transport statins, as well as the statins’ molecular target in the cholesterol production pathway—contribute to the variable response among individuals. Using results of genetic tests, doctors may one day be able to prescribe the right dose from the start and more quickly reduce their patients’ risk of dangerous cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke.
For more information on pharmacogenetic testing, contact:
PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
405-509-5112
info@pgxmed.com
www.pgxmed.com
Source: www.nigms.nih.gov
