In 2015, the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) updated the Beers Criteria list of potentially inappropriate medications to be monitored or avoided when treating older adults.
The goal of the Beers Criteria is to improve the care of older adults by reducing their exposure to potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs). This is accomplished by using the criteria as an educational tool and quality measure. According to the AGS, two uses that are not always in agreement.
Prescribing decisions are not always clear-cut, and clinicians must consider multiple factors, including discontinuation of medications no longer indicated.
The AGS Beers Criteria for PIM use in older adults is one of the most frequently consulted sources about the safety of prescribing medications for older adults and is used widely in geriatric clinical care, education, and research and in development of quality indicators.
The Beers list is important to help with deprescribing medications that are unnecessary, which helps to reduce the problems of polypharmacy, drug interactions, and adverse drug reactions, improving the risk–benefit ratio of medication regimens in older at-risk adults.
Pharmacogenetics is a tool being used in LTC communities, clinics and pharmacies across the country to help with proper prescribing in older adults. The PGx Medical test results highlight medications on the Beers report making it easy for providers to quickly determine which medications might be inappropriate for each individual person.
For more information on pharmacogenetics, contact:
PGx Medical
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112.
Doctors are using pharmacogenomics to help determine what drugs will work, and which drugs to avoid.
not new, but more and more doctors are testing their patients to see how they process a variety of drugs from pain relievers to cardio medications. This will tell them who the medication will work for, who it won’t, and who might have a severe drug reaction and avoid that.
Doctors keep the genetic information on file so they can check to see if a drug will work or cause a problem before prescribing it. This helps take the guesswork out of prescriptions.
Pharmacogenomics not only helps with medications patients are currently taking, but will guide their future prescriptions and potentially save lives.
PGx Medical is the trusted and experienced resource for the implementation of pharmacogenetics into the field of aging services.
For more information, contact:
PGx Medical info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
The Institute of Medicine defines patient–centered care as: “Providing care that is respectful of, and responsive to, individual patient preferences, needs and values, and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions.”
Education is key to Patient-Centered Care
In 2016, there were approximately 4.45 billion prescriptions issued all over the United States. And according to the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, four out of five patients who visit a physician leave with at least one prescription.
Medications are involved in 80 percent of all treatments and impact every aspect of a patient’s life. The two most commonly identified drug therapy problems in patients receiving comprehensive medication management services are: (1) The patient requires additional drug therapy for prevention, synergistic, or palliative care; and (2) The drug dosages need to be titrated to achieve therapeutic levels that reach the intended therapy goals.
Drug therapy problems occur every day and add substantial costs to the health care system. Drug-related morbidity and mortality was estimated to cost $76.6 billion in the ambulatory setting in the United States. The largest component of this total cost was associated with drug-related hospitalizations.
So what can we do as a society to help focus on Patient-Centered Care and decrease the cost related to drug therapy? Educate.
By educating healthcare professionals on the tools and resources available will help not only individualize care, but will also save money and time by providing scientific based results for proper prescribing and help eliminate the “trial & error” prescribing that has been done for decades.
When a patient is on medications he/she can metabolize properly, you reduce the risk of falls, re-hospitalization and what they call the “Prescribing Cascade” where the side effects of drugs are misdiagnosed as symptoms of another problem resulting in further prescriptions and further side effects and unanticipated drug interactions.
So how do we combat this problem? Pharmacogenetic testing.
Pharmacogenetics is one of those tools. Pharmacogenetics aligns current and future medications with each persons unique genetic profile. It is a simple cheek swab that can help “personalize” medicine based on each individual person – Right Drug, Right Dose, for the Right Person.
Patient-centered care is intended to empower patients in making decisions regarding their own healthcare. The hope is by engaging patients and getting input on their own health, they will have better outcomes. Education is a big component of patient-centered care. By educating the patient and providing information to help them understand their diagnosis and treatment, they can begin to work alongside their provider and have input into their treatment.
Patients bring a unique perspective on their own care. No one knows your body better then you. Far too often patients and their families are not educated or informed on their healthcare decisions. Looking forward into the future, creating a system that is “patient-centered” and focuses on educating patients and healthcare providers will help in so many areas of our healthcare system.
PGx Medical is single-focused. Meaning, we do one thing and we do it with passion. We focus on pharmacogenetics in the field of aging services. As consultants, PGx Medical educates healthcare providers, senior communities, patients and families across the country on the benefits and value of this medication management tool.
For more information, or to schedule an educational webinar or request educational material, contact:
PGx Medical
405-509-5112
info@pgxmed.com
Pharmacogenetics can play an important role in effective use of medications by optimizing drug dose, identifying responders and non-responders to medications, and avoiding adverse events by aligning medications with personal DNA.
Learn how to effectively implement a pharmacogenetics program into your community to help improve quality of life, quality of care, reduce medication costs, and optimize medication usage.
To request more information, or to schedule a webinar or phone call, contact PGx Medical at info@pgxmed.com or 405-509-5112.
At PGx Medical, we made the decision to focus on the field of aging services. Doing one thing, and one thing only helps us direct all our attention on the unique needs in senior communities across the country.
The American Geriatrics Society reports there are 7,300 certified geriatricians in the United States, which is one geriatrician for every 2,700 Americans who are 75 or older. Due to the projected increase in the number of older adults and the plateauing of the number of geriatricians over the last 10 years, it is expected to drop to one geriatrician for every 4,500 older Americans by 2030. In an article in Medicalnews.com, several medical experts state with a growing elderly population that is living longer with fewer physicians available to treat them, the future of geriatric medicine is on the verge of transitioning from disease treatment to disease prevention.
According to Paul Hill, MD, a geriatric psychiatrist and associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), a common challenge for physicians is determining whether geriatric patients are taking their medicine consistently. Hill says advances in pharmacology will make the process easier.
Another issue physicians and pharmacists deal with on a frequent basis is the prescribing cascade. This is when the side effects of drugs are misdiagnosed as symptoms of another problem, resulting in further prescriptions and more side effects and ultimately drug reactions.
Older adults on multiple medications can lead to polypharmacy, which is common in geriatric patients. Polypharmacy refers to the effects of taking multiple medications concurrently to manage coexisting health problems. According to Dr. Linda Shell, MA, RN, “polypharmacy has been a silent killer for years, draining funds from Medicare and dismantling the treatment plans of millions as it becomes a habit ingrained in our culture, especially in eldercare. We’ve become resigned to the falsehood that more drugs mean better treatment, but there’s something putting an end to that.”
The CDC reports 76 percent of Americans over 60 use two or more prescription drugs and 37 percent use five or more. It is important to not only know what medications someone is taking, but track each patient’s medications and any side effects that may result from drug-to-drug interactions.
PGx Medical partners with pharmacists and physicians to educate and implement a tool to help determine the right drug, at the right dose, for each individual patient. It’s called pharmacogenetics.
Pharmacogenetics aligns current and future medications with each persons unique genetic profile. When the pharmacist and the physician work as a team to look at metabolization, side effects or any drug-drug interactions, it helps eliminate the guessing game – or prescribing by trial and error. By being proactive, healthcare professionals can help prevent the cascading event that happens when medications are added on top of one another. In the field of aging services, you may not have the luxury of waiting 3-6 weeks to see if a medication is working.
For more information on pharmacogenetics, contact:
PGx Medical info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
The goal of the Beers Criteria is to improve the care of older adults by reducing their exposure to potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs). This is accomplished by using the criteria as an educational tool and quality measure. According to the AGS, two uses that are not always in agreement.
