New Paper shows pharmacogenetic testing drastically reduces ER visits and Readmissions

A new paper published in PLOSOne (Clinical impact of pharmacogenetic profiling with a clinical decision support tool in polypharmacy home health patients: A prospective pilot randomized controlled trial by Lindsay S. Elliott et al.) shows the effectiveness of precision medicine. For a year the authors followed a set of eligible patients aged 50 and over to see whether genetic testing was able to reduce hospital visits and readmissions. The testing looked at variants affecting drug responses in several pharmacogenomic genes such as CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, CYP3A4, CYP3A5 and VKORC1, and monitored the patients phenotypes and medications. Recommendations were made to clinicians with the YouScript Clinical Decision Support Tool, and prescriptions were then altered at clinician’s discretion. The study showed a dramatic reduction; ER visits were reduced by 71%, while readmissions were reduced by 39%, when compared to a control group. This shows the usefulness of pharmacogenetics in a clinical setting.


You can read more about the genes listed above on PharmGKB (https://www.pharmgkb.org/) and the CPIC guidelines cited by this article at the CPIC website (cpicpgx.org).