by PGx Medical | Feb 3, 2017 | Uncategorized
Welcome to our Friday FOCUS on Pharmacogenetics
Each Friday we will post new and relevant information regarding Pharmacogenetics. We hope you will find this useful and pass along to colleagues. If you should have any questions regarding pharmacogenetics, please feel free to reach out to us at PGx Medical, info@pgxmed.com or 405-509-5112.
Pharmacogenetics and depression:
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a condition that affects 10% to 15% of patients during their lifetime and has significant physical, social, and economic consequences. The primary goal for treatment of MDD is to treat the underlying symptoms, restore functioning and prevent recurrence of depressive episodes.
Scientific advancements in pharmacogenetics or “personalized medicine” have provided alternative methods for aligning drugs to each patients unique genetic profile. Pharmacogenomics has been successfully used to optimize selection of medications and dosing, and avoid adverse effects.
Pharmacogenetics may be useful in not only selecting a particular antidepressant for a patient but also in detecting potential adverse effects and reducing premature discontinuations of antidepressants.
Although effective treatment for mood and anxiety disorders have been available for more than 40 years, 30-50% of depressed patients and 25% of patients with anxiety disorder do not respond sufficiently to first-line treatment with antidepressants. Patients who received antidepressants based on genetically-guided interpretive reports provided to prescribers had greater response rates and remission after 8 weeks.
PGx Medical is the trusted and experienced resource for the implementation of pharmacogenetics in the field of aging services. Our team works with physicians, pharmacists and other clinicians across the country educating them on the clinical value of pharmacogenetics for depression and other forms of mood and anxiety disorders.
In the long-term care setting, pharmacogenetics can help with the new 2017 CMS requirements in regards to comprehensive care planning and drug regimen review, including psychotropic and pain management assessments.
For more information on pharmacogenetics, contact PGx Medical at info@pgxmed.com or 405-509-5112.
Source: ncbi.com, psychiatriyadvisor.com
by PGx Medical | Jan 25, 2017 | Uncategorized
When the time comes to move your elderly parents into a nursing home, what do you look for, or what questions do you ask?
What do you look for when researching a nursing home for your aging parents?
Moving your elderly parents into a nursing home is probably one of the hardest decisions a child will ever have to make. Stella Henry, R.N., author of The Eldercare Handbook and an eldercare specialist who has been featured in Time, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, says many seniors “unrealistically believe they can take care of themselves for the rest of their lives.” And that’s where their children or other family members can be instrumental in identifying the problem and instigating change.
No matter what the age of your parent, Henry and other experts say now is the time to begin communicating about the future. If you open the lines of communication early on, she says, words like “nursing home” lose their sting later on. That’s important, considering that most of Henry’s clients approach her with little communication groundwork laid.
“Ninety-five percent of my clients come to me in crisis situations,” says Henry. The result? Confused elders, disorganized yet well-meaning children, and a family in chaos.
Studies show that nine out of ten parents don’t want to be a burden so they hide things from their adult children. But by talking to them before they reach the stage where they need a nursing home, it might help build their confidence and allow them to be part of the decision.
One question you might ask when looking into Nursing Homes is…how do you manage my parents medications? Nursing homes all over the country are now offering pharmacogenetics at the point of admissions to any resident who has medical necessity. By testing these residents upon admission, they help eliminate falls, adverse drug events, medication errors and more.
Some indicators for testing are:
Depression diagnosis
Dementia
Frequent falls
Increased behaviors
Cognitive Impairment / Delirium
Polypharmacy (9+ meds)
Antipsychotics/antidepressants
Pain Management
Re-hospitalization
Pharmacogenetics is a simple swab of the cheek and is reimbursed by medicare b and in select states, medicaid. For more information on this test, contact: PGx Medical, info@pgxmed.com or 405-509-5112.
It is never easy to make the decision to move your elderly parent into a nursing home, but making sure they are being cared for and asking all the right questions will help ease your mind.
source: aplaceformom.com
by PGx Medical | Jan 23, 2017 | Uncategorized
As a healthcare professional In a long-term care community, caring for your residents is what you do. Educating you on tools and resources available to make your job easier and help your residents live a better quality of life…that’s what we do.
Pharmacogenetics is a patient-centered program to help improve the quality of life in seniors across the country
PGx Medical is committed to partnering with communities and physicians in the care of their residents. Through our education program, we work one on one with you and your team to help incorporate pharmacogenetics into your community.
Medicine is changing and the work you do as a healthcare professional has never been so important. With an aging population and staggering healthcare costs, how are we going to be able to afford in dollars and workforce to provide care? It’s never been so important to help move healthcare forward.
Rethink the delivery of medicine.
By implementing programs like pharmacogenetics, your healthcare team will have evidence-based results on each individual patient to help guide you in proper prescribing, eliminating “trial and error” prescribing. Pharmacogenetics impacts quality by addressing key clinical concerns such as falls, dementia, sleep, pain, med management and overall staff efficiencies.
Simple Three-Step Program:
The program is a simple three-step process that will partner providers and communities together to educate, deliver and implement documentable results that will address new regulations.
Benefits of Pharmacogenetic Testing:
- Reduction of medications
- Reduced trial and error
- Less med pass time for nurse
- Overall medication cost reduction
Our program also helps you meet the new 2017 CMS requirements in regards to comprehensive care planning and drug regimen review, including psychotropic and pain management assessments.
To learn more about pharmacogenetic testing or to schedule an educational webinar or a PGx Medical team member to speak to your group or organization, contact us at: info@pgxmed.com or 405-509-5112.
by PGx Medical | Jan 20, 2017 | Uncategorized
Welcome to our Friday FOCUS on Pharmacogenetics
Each Friday we will post new and relevant information regarding Pharmacogenetics. We hope you will find this useful and pass along to colleagues. If you should have any questions regarding pharmacogenetics, please feel free to reach out to us at PGx Medical, info@pgxmed.com or 405-509-5112.
One question we get asked a lot when we travel around the country educating healthcare professionals on pharmacogenetics is…
Who should be tested?
Even though our pharmacogenetic program is a once in a lifetime test and reimbursed by medicare and in some states medicaid…it isn’t for everyone.
If you have a resident at your LTC facility who isn’t taking any medications, there is no need to test that resident. The following are a few reasons why I resident would benefit from pharmacogenetic testing.
- Taking multiple medications. You are having problems that you write-off as side effects from your medication. It may be that your drugs are interacting. How would you know without a pharmacogenetic test? Drug interactions may make your drug less effective, cause unexpected side effects, or increase the action of a particular drug. Some drug interactions can even be harmful to you. The PGx Medical test result highlights potential drug-on-drug reactions so healthcare professionals can dose accordingly.
- You’ve been taking your medication but your condition is not improving. Have you ever heard the phrase, “let’s try it for a few weeks and see if you improve.” That is called trial and error and honestly, how physicians prescribed medicine because they didn’t know the genetic make-up of each patient. Now, pharmacogenetic testing can help guide healthcare professionals in proper prescribing by aligning medications with each person’s unique genetic profile. And the test report will show them more effective options.
- Your physician has prescribed an anticoagulant. The FDA recommends individuals be aware of pharmacogenetics prior to starting certain anticoagulants such as Plavix and Warfarin. Patients who are poor metabolizers of these medications may be at risk – or may not be receiving the full benefit of these drugs.
Pharmacogenetics can help identify genetic markers and can assist in individualization of treatment.
PGx Medical is the trusted and experienced resource for the implementation of pharmacogenetics in the field of aging services. Contact us for more information, or let us know if you would like to be part of a Patient-Centered Care Pharmacogenetic Pilot Program. In conjunction with Dr. Linda Shell, PGx Medical is presently enrolling provider organizations and communities. To see if you qualify, go to: www.pgxmed.com/pilotprogram.
PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
by PGx Medical | Jan 13, 2017 | Uncategorized
Welcome to our Friday FOCUS on Pharmacogenetics
Each Friday we will post new and relevant information regarding Pharmacogenetics. We hope you will find this useful and pass along to colleagues. If you should have any questions regarding pharmacogenetics, please feel free to reach out to us at PGx Medical, info@pgxmed.com or 405-509-5112.
Cardiovascular Disease and Pharmacogenetics
Elevated blood pressure is on the rise around the world, with an increasing impact on mortality, according to a large international study.
Pharmacogenetics can help identify genetic markers of antihypertensive drug responses and can assist in individualization of hypertension treatment.
In October 2016 the American Heart Association released a Scientific Statement on
Enhancing Literacy in Cardiovascular Genetics
Advances in genomics are enhancing our understanding of the genetic basis of cardiovascular diseases, both congenital and acquired, and stroke. These advances include finding genes that cause or increase the risk for childhood and adult-onset diseases, finding genes that influence how patients respond to medications, and the development of genetics-guided therapies for diseases. However, the ability of cardiovascular and stroke clinicians to fully understand and apply this knowledge to the care of their patients has lagged. This statement addresses what the specialist caring for patients with cardiovascular diseases and stroke should know about genetics; how they can gain this knowledge; how they can keep up-to-date with advances in genetics, genomics, and pharmacogenetics; and how they can apply this knowledge to improve the care of patients and families with cardiovascular diseases and stroke.
This is an exciting time in the field of medicine, when the application of genetics and genomics-driven diagnostics, prognostics, and therapeutics is seeing a rapid growth. The federal investment in the Precision Medicine Initiative has energized the field of genomic applications in health care. The applications to cardiovascular diseases and stroke are expected to see similar growth, and the cardiovascular clinician needs to be well informed about this burgeoning field and how to effectively apply it to the care of their patients. This statement provides the current and future state of knowledge in which the clinician needs to be proficient, the public resources available to the clinician to stay abreast of this knowledge, recommendations for increasing genetic awareness and edu- cation among practicing clinicians, and the importance of close collaboration with genetics specialists. Societies such as the American Heart Association should invest in educational tools and resources to increase genetics awareness and knowledge through continuing medical education.
The eventual goal is to empower and enable the cardiovascular clinician to understand, interpret, and apply genetic information to patient care in an effective, responsible, and cost-efficient manner. ~Read entire article at: American Heart Association
Pharmacogenetics can help identify genetic markers of antihypertensive drug responses and can assist in individualization of hypertension treatment. PGx Medical is the trusted and experienced resource for the implementation of pharmacogenetics in the field of aging services.
PGx Medical
Individualized Care – Personalized Medicine
info@pgxmed.com
405-509-5112
Source: Mital S, Musunuru K, Garg V, Russell MW, Lanfear DE, Gupta RM; on behalf of the American Heart Association Council on Functional Genomics and Translational Biology; Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young; Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing; Stroke Council; Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health; and Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research. Enhancing literacy in cardiovascular genetics: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association [published online ahead of print September 26, 2016]. Circ Cardiovasc Genet. doi: 10.1161/HCG.0000000000000031.
by PGx Medical | Dec 19, 2016 | Uncategorized
Between 2000 and 2014, opiate-related overdose deaths in the U.S. increased 200%
Opioid-related hospitalizations and ED visits spike in US. photo courtesy of healthcare dive
The rate of opioid-related hospitalizations and ED visits varied significantly by state, with the highest hospitalization rate occurring in Maryland and the highest rate of ED visits in Massachusetts.
According to an article in Healthcare Dive, Opioid-related hospitalizations and ED visits spike in US.
Between 2005 and 2014, the rate of opioid-related hospital stays increased 64.1% while opioid-related ED visits increased 99.4%.
But not all states were the same. Opioid-related hospitalizations and ED visits varied by state with the highest ED visits being in Massachusetts and the highest hospitalization being in Maryland.
An opioid epidemic was declared in the U.S. by the HHS (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services) this past October due to a marked increase in the misuse of opioids over the past decade. The new statistical brief provides detailed, state-by-state data on overdose deaths, the rate of opioid-related hospitalizations and the rate of opioid-related ED visits. The brief did not differentiate between illegal opioid use, misuse of prescription opioids and compliant use of opioids.
HHS has urged providers to alter their prescribing practices, essentially making opioid medications a last resort. Meanwhile, hospitals and healthcare systems have started their own initiatives to address this national challenge, such as focusing on pain management alternatives or requiring across-the-board reductions in the number of opioid prescriptions.
Pharmacogenetics and Opioids:
Patients with CYP450 pharmacogenetic variations may respond differently to opioids, ranging from drug unresponsiveness to toxicity with elevated serum levels. The administration of opioids may be associated with adverse drug reactions including sedation, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, constipation, physical dependence, tolerance, and respiratory depression. By performing pharmacogenetic testing, patients can be dosed appropriately to avoid experiencing dose-dependent side effect or lack of drug efficacy.
Results of pharmacogenetic tests allow patients to be dosed appropriately. Pharmacists can play a role in providing information to patients on selecting opioids where genetic testing may be useful. ~medscape.com
For more information on Pharmacogenetic Testing, contact: PGx Medical, info@pgxmed.com or 405-509-5112.
Read entire article at: healthcaredive.com
