by brant bullard | Dec 18, 2014 | News
It can be difficult to predict who will benefit from a medication, who will not respond at all and who will experience adverse effects. Pharmacogenetics seeks to understand how differences in genes and their expressions affect the body’s response to medications. Learn more from PGx Medical.
Listen to the live interview with OCAST and PGx Medical click here.
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by brant bullard | Sep 29, 2014 | Metabolic Validation Program, News
Physicians have long relied on a range of resources—including medical literature, their own research and experience, and pure gut feelings to treat patients. But that one-size-fits all approach doesn’t take into account a patients unique characteristics.
With personalized medicine available now, patients can receive individualized care according to their own genomic make-up.
Medicine as we know it revolves around “standards of care,” the best courses of treatment for the general population.
A growing number of healthcare clinicians are calling for a more personalized approach tailoring medicine to fit each individual; Right Drug, Right Dose, Right Person.
It is important to remember that genes can provide information that can lead us to make more informed decisions about our healthcare and medication therapy.
Education is the key. Consider patient’s with depression, 38 percent of whom do not respond to the first drug they are prescribed. With personalized medicine, or metabolic validation testing, healthcare professonals don’t have to prescribe medications on a “trial-and-error” basis. They will be provided a guide for dosing depending on that individuals genetic makeup.
“One day, patients will say, ‘I’m not an average patient. I am who I am. You need to understand who I am before you prescribe whatever treatment you plan to prescribe,'” says Edward Abrahams, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Personalized Medicine Coalition.
Personalized Medicine is changing the world of healthcare.
For more information on Metabolic Validation testing (Pharmacogenomics), contact:
PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
by brant bullard | Aug 21, 2014 | Metabolic Validation Program, News
Genes play an important role in determining the right drug, right dose for the right person.
A treatment or dosage that works for one individual may not work, or may cause severe side effects for another. Pharmacogencomics provides healthcare professionals with a tool that will allow them to “personalize” medicine for each individual patient. Reducing hospital visits, adverse drug reactions and unnecessary medications.
At PGx Medical, our Metabolic Validation tests (pharmacogenomics) will help:
- Decrease adverse drug events: More than 770,000 injuries and deaths every year are caused by adverse drug events.
- Cost-Saving: Pharmacogenomics helps reduce the overall cost for experimenting with drugs “trial-and-error” and adverse drug events cost up to $35 billion annually in hospital admissions.
- Trial and Error: You can now have more accurate information on what an individual can metabolize so you can avoid the “trial-and-error” process that cost money and delays recovery. Pharmacogenomics will help patients/residents live a better quality of life.
If your pharmacy, clinic or home is interested in pharmacogenomic testing, contact us at: info@pgxmed.com or call 405-509-5112.
PGx Medical
Individualized Care / Personalized Medicine
www.pgxmed.com
by brant bullard | Aug 15, 2014 | News, Uncategorized
Recently while speaking and educating across the country, we came up with the Top 5 Questions asked about our PGx Metabolic Validation Program. We hope these will answer any question you might have regarding our tool.
Q: Who pays for the metabolic validation test?
PGx: Metabolic Validation (Pharmacogenomics) is available to patients/residents with any of the following coverages:
- Medicare B (100% covered) PGx Medical does not balane bill and there is no co-pay.
- Medicaid is available in select states (100% covered) PGx Medical does not balance bill and there is no co-pay in select states.
- Private Insurance. We believe that every patient should have access to the Metabolic Validation testing. So with the PGx Medical MVT, you are eligible for our Financial Assistance Program.
Q: How do I get tested?
PGx: A doctor must order the metabolic validation test. If your home, clinic or family physician isn’t already testing patients, just tell them you would like to request it and they can request test kits at info@pgxmed.com or call us 405-509-5112. We’ll be happy to coordinate everything for them.
Q: What is the science behind Metabolic Validation/Pharmacogenomics?
PGx: The body of scientific studies and research from the FDA, NIH, drug manufacturers and the molecular genetic community continues to highlight pharmacogenomic values for the use of a metabolic validation tool. Some of the key highlights of the clinical application of this science:
- Over 150 medications have FDA guidance surrounding pharmacogenomics and how medications should be used based on genetic variants. (1)
- FDA has given clear recommendations on how pharmacogenomic information can be incorporated into new medication labeling. (2)
- The National Institute of Health has a list of over 80 medications that they recommend changing the medication or the dosage based on pharmacogenomic information. (3)
Q: Do all patients metabolize mediciation the same way?
PGx: Over 50% of patients have gene variants that alter the rate at which they metabolize medications.
Q: Why am I just now hearing about Metabolic Validation?PGx: Metabolic Validation testing (pharmacogenomics) isn’t new. It has been around for decades. The only difference is medicare has made it affordable and now more available to you. Along with the age of technology which has brought awareness to the general public with unlimited information and education available via the internet so more people are hearing about and understanding the value of metabolic validation. PGx Medical has also made an aggressive effort to bring it to the forefront by partnering with state agencies and speaking/educating across the country regarding the benefits of this once in a lifetime test. Our tool helps healthcare professionals determine the right drug, right dose for the right patient making it easy to incorporate personalized medicine into their patient care.
For more information on the PGx Medical Metabolic Validation Test:
PGx Medical
405-509-5112
info@pgxmed.com
www.pgxmed.com
Source:
http://www.fda.gov/drugs/scienceresearch/researchareas/pharmacogenetics/ucm083378.htm (1)
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/Guidances/UCM337169.pdf) (2)
http://www.pharmgkb.org/cpic/pairs (3)
by brant bullard | Apr 29, 2014 | News
Five Healthcare Trends that will Impact Senior Living 
By: Senior Housing News
The Affordable Care Act is causing a sea change in the healthcare industry at large, and several emerging trends are expected to impact the long-term care industry as well, including a movement toward in-home services.
Five trends in particular are worth noting, Senator Bill Frist, the keynote speaker for the National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing & Care Industry’s upcoming regional conference, told NIC in an exclusive interview.
“There is a definite rise in government sponsored healthcare,” Frist told NIC ahead of his speech he’ll give during a networking lunch at the regional conference this month on how the healthcare industry has transformed. “The implication for companies working in senior living is that they will be forced to comply with the government regulations that come with the government money.
” One aspect of the ACA that’s expected to impact the healthcare industry is the move toward value-based healthcare. This will lead to restructuring payment models, bundling care, and requirement outcomes evaluation, Frist said.
“Specifically, accountability for outcomes and a correlation with the cost of care will be a massive cultural change in medicine,” he said.
As healthcare systems develop data systems and analytics to identify patients at risk for hospital readmission in an effort to cut down on unnecessary rehospitalizations, the assisted living industry will also have to pay more attention to this data, Frist said.
There’s also a rise in the “patient-consumer”—a shift away from what Frist called the paternalism of medicine to a model that empowers patients and allows them to shop around. “The rise of consumerism imparts a need for branding in healthcare that we have not before seen,” he said.
For more information on metabolic validation for your Senior Community, contact:
PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
405-509-5112
info@pgxmed.com
www.pgxmed.com
by brant bullard | Apr 15, 2014 | News
As drug therapy experts, pharmacists are in a unique position to push the frontiers of pharmacogenetics in both the research and clinical practice environments.
Pharmacists are the logical information nexus to bring together information on patient health, medications being taken or considered, and potential genetic interaction with those medications.
In an attempt to avoid the adverse effects of drugs, or to ensure their efficacy, there is a growing capacity to connect individual differences in biochemistry causing these differences directly with personal genetic variations. More than 100 drugs now carry FDA pharmacogenetic information on the label, and this labeling trend will certainly grow. The application of such knowledge can be critical to a patient’s health, an application that requires testing and interpretation relative to medication. Pharmacogenetics may soon become common in pharmacy practice.
Community pharmacists are integral to patient care through MTM. Because of the relationships they have with patients, pharmacists are poised to assume the role of obtaining samples and providing clinical pharmacy services in response to pharmacogenetic test results. In fact, it is a natural extension of the MTM rubric for pharmacists to include the results of pharmacogenetic tests or the recommendation to test. ~pharmacist.com~
The field of pharmacogenetics presents a wide range of opportunities for pharmacists. Specific roles for pharmacists are likely to fall within three major domains: developing research methodologies and setting research directions, establishing the value of pharmacogenetic testing in clinical practice, and participating in education and infrastructure development that moves pharmacogenetic technologies toward implementation. ~JAPhA.com~
For more information on Pharmacogenetic Testing, contact:
PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
405-509-5112
info@pgxmed.com
