Creating a scalable clinical pharmacogenomics service with automated interpretation and medical record result integration – experience from a pediatric tertiary care facility

Abstract

Objective: This paper outlines the implementation of a comprehensive clinical pharmacogenomics (PGx) service within a pediatric teaching hospital and the integration of clinical decision support in the electronic health record (EHR). Materials and Methods: An approach to clinical decision support for medication ordering and dispensing driven by documented PGx variant status in an EHR is described. A web-based platform was created to automatically generate a clinical report from either raw assay results or specified diplotypes, able to parse and combine haplotypes into an interpretation for each individual and compared to the reference lab call for accuracy. Results: Clinical decision support rules built within an EHR provided guidance to providers for 31 patients (100%) who had actionable PGx variants and were written for interacting medications. A breakdown of the PGx alerts by practitioner service, and alert response for the initial cohort of patients tested is described. In 90% (355/394) of the cases, thiopurine methyltranferase genotyping was ordered pre-emptively. Discussion: This paper outlines one approach to implementing a clinical PGx service in a pediatric teaching hospital that cares for a heterogeneous patient population. There is a focus on incorporation of PGx clinical decision support rules and a program to standardize report text within the electronic health record with subsequent exploration of clinician behavior in response to the alerts. Conclusion: The incorporation of PGx data at the time of prescribing and dispensing, if done correctly, has the potential to impact the incidence of adverse drug events, a significant cause of morbidity and mortality.