Patient Characteristics, Experiences and Perceived Value of Pharmacogenetic Testing from a Single Testing Laboratory

Abstract

Aims: Patients’ use of and experience with pharmacogenetic (PGx) testing may be impacted by several factors including patient and provider knowledge, health status, and perceived understanding of results. Materials & Methods: We conducted an online survey of individuals who had subscribed to a newsletter service offered by a US commercial PGx testing company, Genelex. Results: We find that about half of respondents that had PGx testing reviewed one or more of the lab’s web-pages, 43% believed they understood the test results very well, but 40% did not know or could not recall whether their provider had changed their prescription based on the test result. Conclusions: There was limited use of the laboratory’s online resources by respondents undergoing PGx testing. Increased awareness of the website may improve understanding of test results and facilitate discussions with providers about medication changes.

Keywords::

• pharmacogenetic testing
• satisfaction
• understanding

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Kristine Ashcraft of Genelex for her support in allowing us to conduct the study.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors are partly supported by the NIH (Grant No. R01GM081416). 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.

Additional information

Funding

The authors are partly supported by the NIH (Grant No. R01GM081416). 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.