Pharmacogenomics and Precision Medicine is trending like never before, with the strides that are being made in this field. While you can go and search out the news yourself, we want to make it easy for you. You can start by following social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and our preferred lab partner, Genelex on Facebook and Twitter. We’re constantly posting relevant articles from around the web. Or you can follow our “This Month in Pharmacogenetics and HealthIT” series where we highlight some of the current trending articles. Here’s this month’s trending articles:
Pharmacies miss half of dangerous drug combinations
It’s shocking to know that so many pharmacists and their teams will let patients walk away without so much as a warning that their prescriptions may cause a serious danger to their health. We ask everyone to reach out to their providers, their hospitals, their pharmacists to make sure they are using YouScript to avoid any potential adverse drug effects.
With over 2 million adverse drug events each year, almost all are avoidable with proper oversight and use of the YouScript clinical decision support software.
21st Century Cures Act heads to the Senate today
The Senate voted 94-5 to pass the 21st Century Cures Act on December 7, 2016. President Obama signed the bill into law on December 13, 2016. This landmark bill will usher in $6.3 billion to the NIH for Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative, the “Cancer Moonshot” initiative, and the BRAIN initiative, among other health objectives.
With the passing of this bill, and the overwhelming support from the House, we are very excited for the major funding of precision medicine in the US from the President and Congress.
Check out this fascinating op-ed from Dr. Dave Levin and his recent meeting with several top CMIOs from the U.S. healthcare system.
Where will precision medicine go in 2017?
“While the future of the Precision Medicine Initiative is uncertain as we enter into a new presidential term, how can we as clinicians implement tenets of precision medicine right now when treating our patients?
First and foremost, one tenet of more precise care is enabling our patients to access their own health record data so they can review it when they need to and share it with others when they want. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has made a huge push for patient access to health records through its pioneering “Blue Button.””
How Precision Medicine Is Changing Health Care
“Precision medicine can help change that. Precision medicine, also called personalized or individualized medicine, is an evolving field in which physicians use diagnostic tests to identify specific biological markers — often genetic — that help determine which medical treatments and procedures will work best for each patient.
By combining this information with an individual’s medical records, circumstances and values, personalized medicine allows doctors and patients to develop targeted treatment and prevention plans.”