Family Medicine Practices Begin to Incorporate Pharmacogenomic Testing

By offering patients a pharmacogenomic test, physicians can often determine which medications a patient is most likely to respond well to. When Genesys PHO in Michigan decided to pilot pharmacogenomics in its family medicine practices over two years ago, Theresa Thomas, M.D., an associate medical director, volunteered right away.

“Part of why I was so interested in being part of the pilot group for this testing was because I had a patient, a young female, who was 17 years old, and she was struggling with anxiety and depression, and it was quite severe,” Thomas explained. “She had been to several specialists and tried numerous medications. And every time she came in, she kept saying it wasn’t working and she wasn’t feeling any better.” Thomas wanted to be able to help her by doing pharmacogenomic testing. “When the data came back, it showed that every single medication that they had tried, even though they were correct medicines to use, were not medicines that she was able to metabolize and have success with. To me, that was just such an eye-opening moment. And I was so excited, because then we were able to change her medication regimen. And we're now two years out from that, and she is doing great.”

The 65-physician Genesys PHO is part of the much larger Ascension Medical Group. Thomas and colleagues worked to understand the best way to build the