Journal of Research and Development
Open Access

Abstract

Differences in Medicare Quality Measures among Nursing Homes after Pharmacogenetic Testing

Azhar Gohar, Wei JY, Ashcraft K, Neradilek MB, Newman RL, Thirumaran RK, Moyer NA and Sass RE

Aim: Medical providers increasingly refer patients for pharmacogenetic testing. However, there is a dearth of data regarding the benefits of testing residents in long-term care facilities. The researchers conducted a retrospective population-level analysis to assess the usefulness of pharmacogenetic testing in nursing homes.
Methods: A subset of publicly available data of nursing home quality measures was identified as being possibly associated with medication-related problems and pharmacogenetic variability. The overall quality measures for nursing homes that had initiated pharmacogenetic testing for residents via the YouScript® Personalized Prescribing System, pharmacogenetic testing (PGxT) were compared to measures from control nursing homes that had not initiated testing YouScript®, PGxT testing.
Results: There was a 5.4% reduction in self-reported, moderate-to-severe pain in the residents of the PGxT nursing home compared to control homes that did not initiate testing YouScript®, PGxT testing (p=0.001). There was also a tendency towards a reduction in falls resulting in major injury in the YouScript®, PGxT nursing homes when compared against the national average.
Conclusion: The present study demonstrated a small reduction in the percent of residents reporting moderateto- severe pain after results of pharmacogenetic testing were made available to the providers. Further studies will need to be done to assess if pharmacogenetic testing, using a Personalized Prescribing System, might reduce the use of potentially inappropriate medications and have a positive impact on the quality of life measures in the elderly.