by brant bullard | May 19, 2014 | Metabolic Validation Program
Pharmacogenomics has become an area of great potential in the medical community. Therefore, the attitudes and knowledge among healthcare professionals is essential.
Nurses could play a critical role in the integration of pharmacogenomics testing and into routine practice. However, to do this, nurses must be accepting of and knowledgeable about this type of genetic testing.
Nurses who are knowledgeable about this type of testing and therapy will be able to become a patient advocate and discuss the benefits and limitations of this therapy with their patients. Patient advocacy is an essential nursing role and is a part of the definition of nursing set out by the American Nursing Association. However, in order to be a patient advocate, a nurse should have an adequate knowledge base about pharmacogenetic testing as well as accessible resources that may enhance the patient’s understanding of this therapy.
To grasp the basics of pharmacogenomics, you need to understand drug metabolism—specifically the cytochrome P450 (CYP450) enzyme system. CYP450 enzymes are the most important drug-metabolizing enzymes, and the CYP450 enzyme system is the most important system affecting drug metabolism. Other genetic factors also affect drug transport proteins, drug absorption, drug receptors, and drug excretion.
In the simplest sense, the goal of pharmacogenomics or metabolic validation testing is to understand the effects of genetics on drug response. If this can be done, drug inefficacy and adverse effects could be predicted and avoided, and appropriate drugs could always be prescribed in the proper dosages.
For more information on pharmacogenomics or how you can implement the PGx Metabolic Validation testing in your facility, contact:
PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
Resource: Americannursetoday.com
by brant bullard | May 16, 2014 | Metabolic Validation Program
Depression affects more than 6.5 million of the 35 million Americans aged 65 years or older.
Depression in elderly people often goes untreated because many people think that depression is a normal part of aging and a natural reaction to chronic illness, loss and social transition.
Treatment Once diagnosed, 80 percent of clinically depressed individuals can be effectively treated by medication. Medications can be beneficial for elderly individuals in treating the symptoms of depression.
But according to NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) research has shown that some depressed individuals may need to try more than one medication to get an optimal response.
But by playing the “trial & error” game, many seniors are living with depression while trying to figure what medication is metabolizing in their body and what isn’t. By doing a simple (once in a lifetime) metabolic validation test which involves a simple swab of the mouth, physicians can now determine what medications will work for each individual resident. This allows better, more personalized care for the resident and most importantly, a better quality of life.
According to a 2013 Clinical Gerontologist study done by Tracy Chippendale, PhD, OTR/L, “Depressive symptoms are expected to become a leading cause of the global burden of disease, second only to cardiovascular disease, by the year 2020.” Given these ominous statistics, it’s time for nursing home staff to start thinking about what they can do within their own facilities to potentially ease the burden and help their nursing home residents feel less depressed.
The PGx Medical metabolic validation test is reimbursed by medicare so there is no cost to the facility, and no cost to the resident or their family.
For more information, contact:
PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
Source: NAMI.com
Source: digicareins.com
by brant bullard | May 15, 2014 | Metabolic Validation Program
Unlocking the future of medicine
A primary goal of personalized medicine is to provide the best medical treatment for each individual patient by determining which drug will have the best efficacy and have the least amount of toxicity and/or adverse effects. Furthermore, understanding interindividual variations of response to drug treatment, especially in patients with potential adverse reactions, might lead to biomarkers that can be used to predict the low incidence of idiosyncratic toxicity. Individualized medicine is usually based on the concept of pharmacogenomics that studies the influence of an individual’s genotype and/or SNPs on their response to a drug or medical treatment.
When drugs are prescribed, personalized medicine will use metabolic validation testing to predict how individuals will metabolize the compound. One example of this pharmacogenomics approach is the FDA approval of genetic tests that can predict the appropriate starting dose of the blood thinner warfarin (trade name Coumadin).
Because warfarin has a very narrow therapeutic range and because there is high inter- and intra-patient variability in response, finding the optimal dose can be challenging. While there are non-genetic factors that affect individual response, it is known that variations in two specific genes are associated with response to warfarin, and it has been suggested that pharmacogenomic-based dosing could speed up the determination of the appropriate initial therapeutic dose.
Medical School and Pharmacogenomics
Pharmacogenomics has been the major focus area to date; 84% of medical schools in the United Kingdom and 74% of U.S. and Canadian medical schools include pharmacogenomics in their curricula.
Source: Medscape.com
For more information on Personalized Medicine through Metabolic Validation Testing, contact:
PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
405-509-5112
info@pgxmed.com
by brant bullard | May 12, 2014 | Metabolic Validation Program
Before pharmacogenomics, healthcare providers used a “one size fits all” approach to treating individuals.
Now it has the potential to transform healthcare through, avoidance of drug side effects.
Metabolic Validation testing can determine whether you are a poor metabolizer, intermediate or ultra-rapid metabolizer.
The goal of metabolic validation testing (pharmacogenetic testing), is to have drug treatments that are specific to each person.
Today, healthcare providers have the ability to use genomic information to tailor medicine and/or treatments to the individual, and personalize their care.
Nurses are typically on the front line communicating with the patient, family and other healthcare professionals. It is important that they understand the impact and effectiveness of personalized medicine.
A nurse can play a big role in personalized medicine. They can help facilitate drug selection or dosage in treatment of an individual.
In 2007, the FDA revised the label on the common blood-thinning drug warfarin (Coumadin) to explain that a person’s genetic make-up might influence response to the drug. Warfarin and many other drugs now have a Black Box Warning to let healthcare professionals know patients may need to receive a lower dose or to change what medications they are receiving to avoid adverse drug reactions.
For more information on Metabolic Validation, contact:
PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
www.pgxmed.com
by brant bullard | Apr 30, 2014 | Metabolic Validation Program
As a healthcare professional, do you heed their warning?
Black Box Warnings:
A prominently displayed boxed warning, the so-called “black box,” is added to the labeling of drugs or drug products by the Food and Drug Administration when serious adverse reactions or special problems occur, particularly those that may lead to death or serious injury. Healthcare providers are often not knowledgeable about the origin, meaning, and implications of these “black box” warnings. In this review, our goal is to provide insight into how the Food and Drug Administration evaluates, communicates, and manages drug benefit/risk. We discuss drug labeling, the emphasis on safety throughout the drug approval process, legislative initiatives for safe use of drugs in children, and postmarketing safety surveillance. In addition, we encourage health care providers to report drug reactions to the Food and Drug Administration’s MedWatch program. A discussion of new Food and Drug Administration initiatives to improve drug safety processes and methods to serve the public better are highlighted. source: www.ncbi.gov
How can pharmacogenomics help?
Until recently, drugs have been developed with the idea that each drug works pretty much the same in everybody. But genomic research has changed that “one size fits all” approach and opened the door to more personalized approaches to using and developing drugs.
Depending on your genetic makeup, some drugs may work more or less effectively for you than they do in other people. Likewise, some drugs may produce more or fewer side effects in you than in someone else. In the near future, doctors will be able to routinely use information about your genetic makeup to choose those drugs and drug doses that offer the greatest chance of helping you.
Pharmacogenomics may also help to save you time and money. By using information about your genetic makeup, doctors soon may be able to avoid the trial-and-error approach of giving you various drugs that are not likely to work for you until they find the right one. Using pharmacogenomics, the “best-fit” drug to help you can be chosen from the beginning.
Pharmacogenomics may also help to quickly identify the best drugs to treat people with certain mental health disorders. For example, while some patients with depression respond to the first drug they are given, many do not, and doctors have to try another drug. Because each drug takes weeks to take its full effect, patients’ depression may grow worse during the time spent searching for a drug that helps. source: genome.gov
Pharmacogenomics or metabolic validation testing isn’t new and is being used in hundreds of healthcare facilities across the country. These tests help treat patients without the “trial & error” model we have used in the past. By doing this, physicians and pharmacist are able to treat patients the first time and help provide them a better quality of life.
For more information on Metabolic Validation Testing, contact:
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.
