Pharmacogenomics: Lowering costs, improving outcomes through personalized medicine

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“One of our goals is for doctors to no longer have to do a trial-and-error type of prescribing, no more just titrating and playing with the dosage. Our hope is just the same as the Get the Medications Right Institute’s: that we can get the medication right the first time, saving our members considerable pain and suffering and saving the plan a lot of money.”—Jane Cheshire Gilbert, CPA, Director of Retiree Health Care for the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Kentucky

Pharmacogenomics considers the role of the genome in drug response. It combines pharmacology and genomics, considering how the genetic makeup of an individual affects his/her response to drugs.

Today, more than ever before, we have the ability to target the right drug to improve a patient’s quality of life while also eliminating waste from non-optimized medications. This issue brief provides an overview of pharmacogenomics and showcases an employer case example of the opportunities and savings available to employers and health plans through integration of personalized medicine into benefit plan design.

Featuring the voices of Jane Cheshire Gilbert, CPA, director of retiree health care for the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Kentucky andSteve Goldberg, MD, vice president, medical affairs, population health and chief health officer, health & wellness, Quest Diagnostics, GTMRx Institute board member.