Opening universal gateways to providing better healthcare in clinical practice.
What if every patient you treated presented with a medical passport that clearly indicates their interactions with specific drugs based on their genes? Wouldn’t that make prescribing medication a whole lot safer, and far more reliable?
A recent study published in the Lancet regarding the interpretation of a pharmacogenetic 12-gene panel, concluded that there is clear evidence to support that precision medicine “reduced the incidence of clinically relevant adverse drug reactions” by as much 30 per cent.
According to the authors of this study, Professor Jesse J. Swen et. al, these “results underpin the benefits of implementing a standardised, validated, and harmonised pharmacogenetic test system” in medical practice, whereby “large-scale implementation could help to make drug therapy increasingly safe.” (February 2023) The Lancet. Volume 401, Issue 10374.
But this evidence is not new.
Says Dr Daniel Meyersfeld, a molecular biologist and founder of DNAlysis Biotechnology, “the evidence of individual gene-drug associations has been around for a long time and forms the basis of the test that we offer.” He asserts that the Lancet paper is “further confirmation of the benefit of routine, preemptive testing.”
CDC statistics show that the number of drugs provided or prescribed annually in the United States alone surpasses 4.0 billion, and that the percentage of doctor visits involving drug therapy is 71.9 per cent. Of this, the most frequently prescribed therapeutic classes include analgesics and antihyperlipidemic agents.
While these drugs may be helpful in treating many illnesses, employing the timeworn trial-and-error approach when it comes to chronic medication (that a person will potentially be on for the rest of their lives) is betting bravely. Even more so when it is possible to obtain the data beforehand to know whether the medication is in fact going to work for them.
An essential part of the journey.
Adopters of pharmacogenetics by specialists in clinical practice consider DNA testing to be an essential part of the patient’s journey to wellness. “When presented with the reports by their patients who have done tests, I have yet to hear of a psychiatrist or anesthetist choosing to ignore the data,” says Meyersfeld. There is certainly a growing awareness of the ready availability of such tests amongst both patients and their doctors, with the tests also being made available nationwide through Lancet Laboratories.
Having this information accessible when one goes into hospital or presents a script at the pharmacy, whether it’s in the form of a gene report, or passport, is the keystone for ensuring medical reliability.
The Medcheck report covers a wide spectrum of drug classes and chemical names that identify specific gene associations and interactions. It is designed whereby the summary table follows a traffic light code that makes it easy to interpret. To this point, the universal gateways are open whereby accredited health practitioners do not need to do any formal training to include these tests in their practice. Indeed, there is no reason not to use it.
For more information on the Medcheck report click here.
Press Release: Medical Doctors
Author: Hayley Alexander
References:
CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/drug-use-therapeutic.htm
Lancet Study: Swen. J. et al. (2023) A 12-gene pharmacogenetic panel to prevent adverse drug reactions: an open-label, multicentre, controlled, cluster-randomised crossover implementation study. Available at The Lancet. Volume 401, Issue 10374.
