By Admera Health on Nov 5, 2020 4:09:03 AM
RxVision™: Reviewing New Medications for Gene-Drug and Other Drug Interactions-Part 4
To demonstrate how RxVision™ can be used to check new medications for relevant gene-drug interactions, consider John Smith, a 65-year-old patient who is recovering from a heart attack. He is on several heart-related medications and supplements to aid in his recovery. Due to the heart attack, John Smith has also been suffering from depression. He is currently taking the antidepressant, Lexapro™. However, after 3 months on Lexapro™, John has not experienced any therapeutic benefit from the medication and he would like to see if another medication would be better for him. To address John’s concerns and to gain more insight into his medications, his physician, Dr. Jane ordered a PGxOne™ Plus test. After 7-10 business days, John Smith’s PGxOne™ Plus test results were available on RxVision™.

In the Current Medications and Medications of Interest section, Dr. Jane would see Lexapro™ is listed as a “Use With Caution” gene-drug interaction. She would also see that Lexapro™ has several drug-to-drug interactions with some of John Smith’s other medications. Dr. Jane decides she would like to discontinue John’s use of Lexapro™ and prescribe a new antidepressant medication.

Upon reviewing the alternative antidepressants for John and considering all the factors that play a role in drug response, beyond gene-drug interactions, Dr. Jane decides prescribing Doxepin™ at a standard dosing regimen, may be a good alternative for her patient. She bases her decision on the combinatorial patient impact statement for Doxepin™ which states:
“Patients with this genotype are expected to have a normal response to standard dosing regimen. However, if doxepin will be used in this patient, please monitor for drug toxicities and adjust the dose accordingly. Physicians should follow FDA label recommendations and may incorporate CPIC guidelines.”

Being a thorough medication manager, Dr. Jane wants to explore the drug-drug, drug-alcohol, drug-food, and drug-lab interactions that might arise if she prescribes Doxepin™ for John in lieu of Lexapro™. To do so, Dr. Jane navigates to the Modify Medication option in RxVision™. In this area, Dr. Jane modifies John’s medication list by adding Doxepin™, choosing Doxepin™’s route of administration, dosage form, and dose. She also deletes Lexapro™. Dr. Jane checks Doxepin™’s Drug Interactions using the Check Drug Interactions button at the bottom of the screen.

Dr. Jane chooses the PGxOne™ Plus test for all of her patients because she knows that most patients, as they age, will encounter additional conditions for which medications are prescribed. The PGxOne™ Plus test, with its comprehensive gene-drug coverage, will be more useful to her patients long term than a PGx test that only covers select therapeutic areas.
RxVision™ is a tool that a physician can use throughout the patient’s lifetime. Since the genetic testing is analyzing germline genes variants (the patient’s DNA will never change) and the test results will always be useful. There may be situations in the future where a patient will need to be on a new medication or undergo a medical procedure that will require the use of anesthetics or other types of medications. Having a PGxOne™ Plus report in conjunction with RxVision™ could potentially be lifesaving. RxVision™ also has a feature to let healthcare providers share a patient report with other providers allowing for the opportunity to optimize a patient’s care between institutions. Having an online reporting tool available as a patient gets on a new medication will assist healthcare providers to reduce potential adverse drug reactions and treatment failures for their patients.
In combination with the PGxOne™ Plus test, RxVision™ delivers a complete PGx assessment, with gene-drug interactions that align with sources from the FDA, guidelines from the Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementations Consortium (CPIC), and the Association for Molecular Pathologists (AMP) – RxVision™’s comprehensive nature provides for a lifetime of utility. This online reporting tool allows providers to view Admera Health’s PGxOne™ Plus test results in an easy-to-use, dynamic format. This post serves as part-four in the RxVision™ blog series, that will touch upon the following topics:
RxVision™ is able to provide longer-term functionality for users with their PGx results—versus other static PGx reports
RxVision™ combines drug-drug, drug-food, drug-alcohol, and drug-lab interactions from a medication knowledge-base commonly used in EHRs, along with the patient's pharmacogenomics test results in one central data hub. Thus, eliminating the need to check for drug-drug, drug-food, and drug-lab interactions separately
This dynamic online reporting platform provides physicians the capability to print and share the report with other providers who see the same patient, as well as the ability to refer to other providers, that the patient or physician recommends
RxVision™ can be used in preemptive PGx workflows in addition to reactive PGx workflows
Previous posts in this series:
To get started with Admera Health, click here to fill out the PGxOne™ Plus Test order contact form, or by visiting admerahealth.com/ordernow. You can also reach out via phone at 908-222-0533 or by sending an email to clientcare@admerahealth.com.
Follow the steps below to setup your RxVision™ account and access the dynamic online reporting platform.

Admera’s PGxOne™ Plus is a pharmacogenomics test that provides insight for therapeutic decisions.
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About the Author(s):
Dr. Shalis Ammons is the Product Manager for Admera Health's PGxOneTM Plus test. She has earned her doctoral degree in Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. After graduation, she transitioned into the commercial side of the life science industry and has been working in marketing for about three years. She can be contacted at shalis.ammons@admerahealth.com or 908-222-0533 ext. 3880.
Becky Winslow is the Senior Clinical Specialist for the PGxOneTM Plus test in the medical affairs department of Admera Health. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology and her Doctorate of Clinical Pharmacy at Campbell University School of Pharmacy. Additionally, she earned her Community Based Pharmacogenomics Program Certificate and her certification to teach pharmacogenomics from the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy. Becky has more than 20 years of clinical pharmacotherapy and pharmacy business operations experience, which includes six years of experience as a pharmacogenomics medical science liaison and clinical implementation specialist. She can be contacted at becky.winslow@admerahealth.com or 908-222-0533 ext. 3933.