Primary Care Physician Experiences with Integrated Pharmacogenomic Testing in a Community Health System

Abstract

Aim: To explore primary care physicians’ views of the utility and delivery of direct access to pharmacogenomics (PGx) testing in a community health system. Methods: This descriptive study assessed the perspectives of 15 healthcare providers utilizing qualitative individual interviews. Results: Three main themes emerged: perceived value and utility of PGx testing; challenges to implementation in practice; and provider as well as patient needs. Conclusion: While providers in this study viewed benefits of PGx testing as avoiding side effects, titrating doses more quickly, improving shared decision-making and providing psychological reassurance, challenges will need to be addressed such as privacy concerns, cost, insurance coverage and understanding the complexity of PGx test results.

Keywords::

• clinical implementation
• clinical utility
• personalized medicine
• pharmacogenetics
• pharmacogenomics
• pharmacogenomic testing
• primary care physicians
• qualitative research

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.2217/pme-2017-0036

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the contributions of KL Kaul; DL Helseth Jr; K Gulukota; and the NorthShore University HealthSystem Molecular Genetics Laboratory for their essential contributions in the delivery of clinical pharmacogenomics. They especially thank the physicians who participated in this study.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

P Hulick receives financial compensation as an Up-To-Date topic author on the subject of “Principles and clinical applications of next-generation DNA sequencing”. 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. This investigation received a waiver of in-person consent per the institutional review board; implied consent was received via participant email invitation acceptance.

Additional information

Funding

P Hulick receives financial compensation as an Up-To-Date topic author on the subject of “Principles and clinical applications of next-generation DNA sequencing”. 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.