Patient Experiences with Pharmacogenetic Testing in a Primary Care Setting

Abstract

Aim: To investigate patient experiences with pharmacogenetic (PGx) testing. Methods: Patients were offered PGx testing through a study on pharmacist-assisted delivery of PGx testing and invited to complete pre- and post-testing surveys about their experience. Results: Of 63 patients tested, 17 completed the baseline survey (27%). Interest in testing was mostly impacted by desire to inform selection of best treatment (n = 13). Seven of 12 patients that completed the follow-up survey indicated that their provider discussed the test result with them. Five patients understood their test result very or somewhat well. All would be likely to have PGx testing again. Conclusion: Patients perceived PGx testing to be useful, though more effort may be needed to improve patient–provider communication of test results.

Keywords::

• patient experience
• pharmacogenetic testing
• primary care

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported by NIH grant RO1GM081416. SBH is a consultant to Inova Translational Medicine Institute (Falls Church, VA, USA). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by NIH grant RO1GM081416. SBH is a consultant to Inova Translational Medicine Institute (Falls Church, VA, USA). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.