Healthcare Dive | Personalized Medicine For Everyone: Part of Doing More, With Less, For More People

By Joe Randolph, President and CEO, The Innovation Institute | With recent partnerships with GeneFolio, an affordable drug-drug-gene test and knowledge base that helps clinicians more accurately diagnose and treat patients based on how they metabolize certain medications; and 2bPrecise, which captures and disseminates genomic information, The Innovation Institute is geared up to disrupt health care across the U.S.

If you’ve ever experienced the plight of a friend or family member going through an adverse drug reaction, you’ll understand why GeneFolio and 2bPrecise are such important breakthroughs that will change how we prescribe medication to patients. Our hopes are that this test will be administered widely so that millions can benefit from their own genetic information.

Currently, the GeneFolio test is available across the Avera health system and is Avera’s latest advancement in providing patients personalized medicine through pharmacogenomics. The Innovation Institute is leading the charge to introduce GeneFolio to its five other health system member owners, and its network of associates across the U.S.

Understanding pharmacogenomics

Pharmacogenomics is the study of DNA to understand how an individual will metabolize certain medications. The GeneFolio test examines multiple genes that impact medications for pain, depression and other psychotropic disorders, and statins for cholesterol and certain types of blood thinners.

Pharmacogenomics holds the promise that drugs might one day be tailor-made for individuals and adapted to each person’s own genetic makeup. Environment, diet, weight, age, gender, family history, lifestyle, and state of health all can influence a person’s response to medicines, but understanding an individual’s genetic makeup is thought to be the key to creating personalized drugs with greater efficacy and safety.  More…