NEW YORK – New Orleans-based Ochsner Health on Wednesday said it is piloting a pharmacogenomics project, in which it will integrate ActX Genomic Decision Support within its Epic electronic health records to alert doctors to how cancer patients are likely to respond to various drugs based on their genomic profile.
The ActX platform will allow physicians to check drug-gene interactions in real time in the EHR workflow against the therapies cancer patients are prescribed, provide a genomic profile in each patient's chart, and enable assessment of actionable hereditary risks. The decision support system will alert doctors if, based on patients' genomic profiles, they are likely to have a limited response to a drug or experience adverse reactions, or if they need a different drug dose.
"The ability to predict ahead of time which drugs will be effective for a unique patient across many different clinical scenarios and to identify in real time which medications may cause patients serious issues, will save lives and improve the quality of our care while also being more cost effective," Marc Matrana, director of Ochsner Precision Cancer Therapies Program, said in a statement.