Pharmacogenomics in the clinic

In 2018, Stanford Medicine launched a pilot project, Humanwide, using precision health approaches to predict, prevent and treat disease based on the individual patient in primary care. Over the past year, the Humanwide project provided care to a diverse group of 50 patients based on their individual factors, from lifestyle to DNA data. In addition to disease screening, the patients also underwent pharmacogenomic screening and patients with unusual drug responses received consultation from the Stanford Pharmacogenomics Clinic, led by Dr. Russ Altman.

In this video, Dr. Altman gives an introduction to pharmacogenomics and explains to the patients how their genetic information can be used to guide prescribing decisions to lower the side effects and improve the efficacy of the drugs they are using now and in the future.

“If we can bring pharmacogenomics to the frontlines of medicine, I think we have a better chance of managing health instead of disease," said Dr. Altman. "This is where Precision Health is a powerful idea, where we’re trying to keep people out of the system by giving them the minimum medication at the right time and not having their disease progress, get worse and become chronic diseases”.

To learn more about Stanford Pharmacogenomics Clinic:

https://stanfordhealthcare.org/medical-clinics/center-personalized-wellness/pharmacogenomics/how-it-works.html

To learn more about Stanford Precision Health Initiative:

http://med.stanford.edu/precisionhealth.html