Building a Future of Personalized Medicine for Children and Adults Through Pharmacogenetics
Explanation | What's Inside | Benefits | Goal
Scientific evidence indicates that pharmacogenetics -- the study of drug interactions with an individual's genetic makeup -- may improve patient safety. Pharmacogenetic testing for some medications adds genetic information to the usual considerations of patient age, weight, disease process, use of other medications, health behaviors and environment. The additional information gained from pharmacogenetics can help physicians and nurse practitioners choose and dose medication that best meets the needs of the individual patient.
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What's Inside
The Genetic Pharmacology Service web site includes information about:
Benefits of Pharmacogenetics
Pharmacogenetics uses molecular testing to analyze certain genes. A pharmacogenetic test can predict how a patient will metabolize a drug, allowing the clinician to adjust dosages for individual patients to get maximum efficacy from a drug with minimum side effects.
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Our Goal
The goal of the Genetic Pharmacology Service for children and adults is to provide clinical practitioners with state-of-the-art therapeutic drug management information in order to improve efficacy and refine dosing regimens, thereby reducing adverse drug reactions. We achieve this goal by using the following comprehensive approach:
- Pharmacogenetic testing
- Clinician, patient and parent education
- Reporting with dosage recommendations, if applicable
- Reporting with important drug-drug interactions that can induce altered metabolism
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