Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, the first to implement and validate YouScript in the Epic EHR, has licensed YouScript Pharmacogenomic-guided Clinical Decision Support tools through 2023
Seattle, WA and Madison, WI (January 15, 2020) – YouScript announced today that Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, who has signed a multi-year contract extension to further efforts to improve patient care and safety.
Madison-based Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin provides care to 
over 80,000 members through its insurance plan and HMO network. With YouScript integrated for ideal workflow within Epic, GHC-SCW is the only provider of drug and dose optimizations based on genetics, co-medication and other patient factors for at-risk patients in the region.
“At GHC-SCW, we support innovative new research, programs and technology that can help us give our members more personal and more effective care—from being the first payer to reimburse for complimentary medicine to now being the first in the area to leverage YouScript’s genomic decision support,” said GHC-SCW Chief Medical Officer, Chris Kastman, MD. “We are excited to continue setting the trend on standard of care.”
Each year, adverse drug events claim over 100,000 lives and cause over 700,000 emergency department visits nationwide.1 Most events are caused by medications prescribed according to standard dosing guidelines.2 Some events occur because typical drug interaction software is only able to detect binary drug-drug interactions, overlooking gene-based interactions and those caused by combinations of three or more drugs or genes, which represent over 50% of significant interactions. Additionally, as providers suffer through alert fatigue, alerts can be missed. YouScript’s actionable interface results in fewer yet more actionable alerts which are accepted at 4-7 times the industry rate.
Recent studies3 show that using YouScript Precision Prescribing Software reduces re-hospitalizations and emergency department visits by 52% and 42% respectively, by employing over 17,000 curated references and product inserts to simulate a team of clinical pharmacists delivering real-time, evidence-based guidance. YouScript represents a new standard for personalized medication management and care insight.
“Epic and Group Health are wonderful partners to work with and we are looking forward to helping other health systems improve patient care and bend the healthcare cost curve by providing real-time, personalized guidance on the safest drugs and doses the current evidence allows for,” said YouScript CEO Kristine Ashcraft.
1. CDC. Adults and older adult adverse drug events. October 2012. http://www.cdc.gov/MedicationSafety/Adult_AdverseDrugEvents.html. (Accessed May 30, 2018).
2. Budnitz DS, Pollock DA, Weidenbach KN, Mendelsohn AB, Schroeder TJ, Annest JL. National Surveillance of Emergency Department Visits for Outpatient Adverse Drug Events. JAMA. 2006;296(15):1858-1866. doi:10.1001/jama.296.15.1858
3. Elliott LS, Henderson JC, Neradilek MB, Moyer NA, Ashcraft KC, Thirumaran RK. (2017) Clinical impact of pharmacogenetic profiling with a clinical decision support tool in polypharmacy home health patients: A prospective pilot randomized controlled trial. PLOS ONE 12(2): e0170905. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170905
