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Personalized medicine is an emerging model that extends traditional approaches by using an individual’s genetic profile to guide medical decisions and treat illnesses. Genetics gives us a more detailed understanding of how genetic variability between people can be used to better predict a patient’s response to medicine, titrate doses, and significantly reduce adverse drug reactions. “One size does NOT fit all” in drug therapy. Low cost, easy to use gene testing is now available and moving closer to the mass market.
The FDA recently documented that genotyped patients receiving warfarin therapy are expected to have 31% fewer overall hospitalizations and 28% fewer bleeding incidents that may result in healthcare savings of $1.1B. Over 2 million adverse drug reactions are documented in the US annually and an estimated 100,000 deaths per year are caused by ADR’s in hospitals across the US . Like knowing your blood type, knowing a genetic baseline /genetic variations can be quite valuable. Patient profiles that benefit the most include: on 4+ medications, taking Warfarin (Coumadin) or Plavix, have unexplained symptoms, or where medications have not been effective.
Iverson Genetics, in Washington, is a leader in this exciting field. Today, on this segment, Dr. Christina Mailloux and Randy Satterlee will discuss “P4” medicine: predictive, personalized, preventive, and participatory new pharmacogenetic advances. Listeners can visit www.iversongenetics.com and www.personalizedmedicine.com to learn more.
Dr. Christina Mailloux and Randy Satterlee
