Don’t be intimidated by the idea of starting to use pharmacogenetics in your clinic – the tools you need may already be at your disposal.

The New England Healthcare Institute states that medication management tools such as pharmacogenetic testing can help reduce readmissions and prevent costly adverse drug events. After all, a 2010 study by Davies et al. found that 20% of hospital readmissions were due to adverse drug reactions. However, Stanek et al. found in 2012 that a lack of information, especially about when and how to use pharmacogenetics, was a major barrier to adoption.

But the key to implementation may already exist in your practice.

Are you making the most of your EHR?

Medication management tools can be integrated into existing EHRs and a number of different products are available on the market today. One of the main benefits of integrating pharmacogenetic analysis is the software can evaluate all patient medication regimens and provide the prescriber with notifications of who may benefit from pharmacogenetic testing. Doctors don’t have to become experts in the science of pharmacogenetics, but can rely upon evidence-based analysis and alerts instead.

Medication management programs may also come with other benefits as well. For instance, other benefits of using the YouScript® Personalized Prescribing software can include:

• Active Analysis: Regular, automatic analysis highlights which patients are at risk for adverse drug events and which patients have known interactions in their drug regimen. Medications sync to YouScript from the patient’s chart in real-time.
• Automatic Notifications and Recommendations: YouScript looks at scheduled patient appointments and automatically sends a report of high risk patients. Providers are notified when genetic test results are ready for review.
• Customizable Integration: Each integration is customized to the practice’s workflow to make it easy to incorporate testing and analysis. Options include a configurable requisition form which merges patient information from their chart; adding YouScript to the launch menu; and single-sign on allowing the prescriber to explore and audition new medications before making prescription changes in the EHR.

YouScript is already a certified Allscripts™ EHR Application and is working with several other EHR vendors to incorporate pharmacogenetic analysis into their workflows. If you are interested in integrating YouScript into your EHR, make your request at http://info.youscript.com/integrate.