PGx Medical is Proud to Partner with Heartsworth House!

by | Jul 1, 2014 | Uncategorized

Another PGx Medical Certified Metabolic Validation Facility!

 

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Heartsworth House is proud to announce that we are partnering with PGx Medical to offer Metabolic Validation Testing to our Residents.

We are one of the first long term care providers in our area to participate in this program.

BENEFITS
*   The test will determine which medications will work for you.
*   Save length of stays in the hospital.
*   Save cost of medications that will not work
*   Save on suffering until you get the right medication
 *   With Medicare Part B the cost of the test is covered 100 percent.
 *   You only have the test done once in your lifetime.
*   You may share the results with any doctor, hospital or other health care profession you choose

MEDICATIONS TESTED
Over 200 commonly prescribed medications are tested in the following drug classes
 *  Cardiac medications
*   Pain medications
*   Behavioral medications

PAINLESS
The test is done by a simple cotton swab swiped inside your cheek.

Thank you Heartsworth House for your partnership!
PGx Medical Team

 

For more information on how you can become a PGx Medical Certified Metabolic Validation Facility, contact:
PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
Info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112

Become a PGx Medical Certified Metabolic Validation Home!

by | Jun 30, 2014 | Metabolic Validation Program

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To become a PGx Medical Certified Metabolic Validation Home, you must…

 1)    Be educated on the PGx Metabolic Validation tool by one of our team members.

2)    Test current eligible residents.

3)    Utilize test results with your residents and healthcare team.

4)    Continue testing new residents as they are admitted.

5)    For Oklahoma homes: A quarterly report will be sent to the OK State Surveyors of all PGx Medical Certified Homes.

6)    Your home will receive a certificate to be displayed as a PGx Medical Metabolic Validation Home.

7)    Homes will be certified annually

If you are not currently testing and would like more information on how to become a PGx Medical 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 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 person.

For more information or to become a Certifed Home, contact:

PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
www.pgxmed.com

Provider Training

by | Jun 27, 2014 | Metabolic Validation Program

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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

 

Psychotropic Medication Use among Older Adults

by | Jun 12, 2014 | Journal articles

What all nurses need to know.

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Psychotropic medications are commonly administered to elderly patients to help manage behavior and psychiatric symptoms. These drugs are known to have potentially serious side effects, to which older adults are more vulnerable. Nurses care for older adults in many different practice settings but have varying degrees of knowledge about these kinds of medications. The purpose of this article is to provide information to geriatric nurses in all settings about how the most commonly prescribed psychotropic medications (i.e., anxiolytic, antidepressant, and antipsychotic drugs) differentially affect older adults, and examine recent concerns about the use of psychotropic medications with older adults.

Although much of the literature regarding the use of psychotropic medications among older adults is focused on their use in nursing home settings and in residents with dementia, psychotropic medication use is quite common among older adults with or without dementia in all settings (community, assisted living, acute care medical and psychiatric units, and nursing homes). Psychotropic medications are more prevalent among community-dwelling older adults than other age groups. For example, community-dwelling older adults are 7 to 18 times more likely to use psychotropic drugs than are middle-aged adults. Smith, Buckwalter, Hyunwook, Ellingrod, and Schultz (2008) noted research findings suggesting that between 35% and 53% of assisted living residents receive one or more psychotropic medications, and Voyer and Martin (2003) found that more than half of community-dwelling older adults who are admitted to nursing homes receive psychotropic medications within 2 weeks of their admission. In a study of older adults with dementia in nursing homes and acute care geriatric units, Pitkala, Laurila, Strandberg, and Tilvis (2004) found that 87% of patients were taking one psychotropic medication, 66% were taking two, 36% were taking three, and 11% were taking four or more.

It is well documented that older adults are highly vulnerable to the adverse effects of psychotropic medications. Those older than age 70 are 3.5 times more likely than younger individuals to be admitted to the hospital due to adverse drug reactions associated with psychotropic medications. The risk for adverse reactions increases dramatically with the number of medications used and with increasing age (Brooks & Hoblyn, 2007). Thus, it is imperative that nurses caring for older adults, regardless of the setting, are knowledgeable about these medications and are able to recognize and appropriately respond to side effects and adverse effects. The purposes of this article are to (a) provide geriatric nurses working in all settings with information about how psychotropic medications differentially affect older adults; (b) examine recent concerns about the use of psychotropic medications with older adults; and (c) discuss nursing implications related to potential side effects and adverse effects of these medications.

Because of severe adverse side effects and inappropriate prescribing practices, the use of psychotropic medications first came under scrutiny with nursing home residents. As a result, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 (OBRA ’87), federal legislation mandating minimum health and care requirements for nursing homes, placed limitations on the use of psychotropic medications with nursing home residents.

Adverse Effects of Psychotropic Medications in Older Adults
Psychotropic medication is a broad term referring to medications that affect mental function, behavior, and experience. Psychotropic medications are typically administered to older adults to manage symptoms of anxiety, depression, psychological distress, and/or insomnia.

Administration of psychotropic medications is potentially hazardous and can result in serious and sometimes fatal consequences for patients of all ages. This is even more evident for high-risk populations such as older adults. Nurses in all practice settings caring for elderly patients should be familiar with this group of medications, their side effects, and the impact of age-related changes on their pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics. Careful assessment, close monitoring of potentially serious side effects, and use of nonpharmacological interventions when possible will help prevent potential deleterious or fatal effects on this highly vulnerable group.  Read more at:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

PGx Medical’s Metabolic Validation Testing helps healthcare professionals administer the Right Drug, Right Dose, Right Patient. And can be your tool for reducing unnecessary medications.  This easy buccal swab is a once in a lifetime test that will help you provide your residents with a better quality of life and eliminate the trial and error process.

For more information on the PGx Medical Metabolic Validation Test, contact:
PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
www.pgxmed.com

 

Resource:  (Usher, Lindsay, Holmes, & Luck, 2003), (NSW Department of Health, 1997), (Bulat, Castle, Rutledge, & Quigley, 2008; Carr, 2005; Grasso, Bates, & Shore, 2007; Mott, Poole, & Kenrick, 2005),(Brooks & Hoblyn, 2007),

Paving the Way for Personalized Medicine: FDA’s Role in a New Era of Medicine

by | May 29, 2014 | Metabolic Validation Program

Our current lack of ability to predict an individual patient’s treatment success for most diseases and conditions means that clinicians have no choice but to follow a less than optimal approach to prescribing drugs and other treatment options.

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Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D. Commissioner of Food and Drugs 

A patient being treated for high blood pressure, for example, might be placed on one of a number of blood pressure medications. The patient’s doctor makes a decision about what medication to prescribe based on only general information about what might actually work for that particular patient. If the medication does not work after a few weeks, the patient might be switched to another medication. This somewhat “trial-and-error” approach can lead to patient dissatisfaction, adverse drug responses and drug interactions and poor adherence to treatment regimens.

The goal of personalized medicine is to streamline clinical decision- making by distinguishing in advance those patients most likely to benefit from a given treatment from those who will incur cost and suffer side effects without gaining benefit.

The term “personalized medicine” is often described as providing “the right patient with the right drug at the right dose at the right time.” More broadly, “personalized medicine” may be thought of as the tailoring of medical treatment to the individual characteristics, needs and preferences of a patient during all stages of care, including prevention, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.

Personalized medicine generally involves the use of two medical products – typically, a diagnostic device and a therapeutic product – to improve patient outcomes. A diagnostic device is a type of medical device. Diagnostic devices include both in vitro tests such as assays used in measurement of genetic factors and in vivo tests, such as electroencephalography (EEG), electrocardiography (EKG), or diagnostic imaging equipment.

Pharmacogenomics:
Pharmacogenomics (PGx), the study of variations of DNA and RNA characteristics as related to drug response, is one of the most exciting areas of personalized medicine today. The field arises from the convergence of advances in pharmacology (the science of drugs) and genomics (the study of genes and their functions). Patients typically have variability in response to many drugs that are currently available. It can be difficult to predict who will benefit from a medication, who will not respond at all, and who will experience adverse effects. PGx seeks to understand how differences in genes and their expression affect the body’s response to medications.

More specifically, PGx uses genetic information (such as DNA sequence, gene expression,
and copy number) for purposes of explaining interindividual differences in drug metabolism (pharmacokinetics) and physiological drug response (pharmacodynamics), identifying responders and non-responders to a drug, and predicting the efficacy and/or toxicity of a drug.

Advances in PGx have opened new possibilities in drug discovery and development. PGx has allowed for more tailored treatment of a wide range of health problems, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) has supported pharmacogenomics for more than a decade by providing regulatory advice, reviewing applications, and developing policies and processes centered on genomics and individualized therapeutics.

With the help of personalized medicine, the health care management paradigm will focus on prevention, moving from illness to wellness, and from treating disease to maintaining health. By improving our ability to predict and account for individual differences in disease diagnosis, experience, and therapy response, personalized medicine offers hope for diminishing the duration and severity of illness, shortening product development timelines, and improving success rates. At the same time, it may reduce healthcare costs by improving our ability to quickly and reliably select effective therapy for a given patient while minimizing costs associated with ineffective treatment and avoidable adverse events.

Read more at:  FDA.gov

For more information on Personalized Medicine via Metabolic Validation Testing:

PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112

www.pgxmed.com