Pharmacogenomics Medical Program - Coursework Example

Pharmacogenomics Medical Program Name: Institution: Date: Abstract Pharmacogenomics is a form of personalized treatment aimed at creating drug combinations according to individual genetic composition. Different people respond differently to drugs even though they might be suffering from a similar or related ailment. While some people will depict positive response and improve health wise, others will never show any improvement even on a similar drug while on the extreme, some people are harmed by the same medicine that cured others. Subsequent research and medical studies have established that individual genetic make-up play a vital role in response to drugs. Individual genetic make-up determines the effect of the drug once introduced into the body as well as the side effects that come along with such drugs. Identification of specific genes responsible for such actions as above is thus a major medical breakthrough that is used to test and predict the expected response on drugs by patients. Medical researchers can now tell whether a patient will either suffer adverse side effects or improve upon administering of certain drug. The concept of pharmacogenomics is also important in identifying the specific drug that will initiate the required response n a patient. For instance, f there exist a collection of different drugs; a physician can use such information about the genetic composition to identify the drug that best suits the patient. Despite the potential benefits of pharmacogenomics, it faces numerous hurdles before establishment as a routine medical practice. The approach holds huge importance and potential especially in the current world characterized well chemical mutants. Introduction What information would you collect and how would it be processed and stored? How would it be used? Could genomic information be used to predict disease or disease outcomes? Who would run such a program Pharmacogenomics sometimes exchangeable with pharmacogenetics is a portmanteau of two broad terms; pharmacology and genomics. The term therefore refers to the study of the role of genetics in drug functionality and applications. Pharmacogenomics explains the impacts of various patients’ genetic make ups on the response to a given drug by comparing the same gene expression with drug functionality aspects such as absorption, metabolism and effect on immunity. (Gelehrter, Thomas D, Francis S. Collins, and David Ginsburg). The major concern of pharmacogenomics is to achieve optimal drug therefore through rational approaches; ensure maximum drug efficiency while reducing the potential side effects on the patient by studying the patients’ genotype. Trial and error prescription is a common and acceptable medical practice. Physicians can develop a treatment plan for patients after physical examination which ends up effectively curing the ailment. However, pharmacogenomics provides a different approach. It basically aims at eradicating such trial and error prescription by prompting the respective physician to first study the patients’ genomics and including such establishments in the final treatment plan adopted. (Lam, Yui-Wing F, and Larisa H. Cavallari, 2013). This does not only enhance treatment efficacy but can also help explain the causes of past treatment failures as well as side effects exhibited by a patient. I this way each patient will have a unique drug formulation, specifically optimized his or her unique gene make up. The combination of pharmacogenomics with other scientific approaches in medicine such as biochemistry has great potential to offer broad understanding of the DNA variations hence developing the best drugs for each individual. Benefits of pharmacogenomics medical program at a Hospital Successive establishment and implementation of pharmacogenomics as a routine medical practice has got a number of benefits. For instance, there are higher chances of developing more powerful and effective medicines. The strength of any treatment or drug is determined from the overall time taken to produce the expected results as well as conformity to the expected side effects. (Meyer, Jerrold S, and Linda F. Quenzer, 2013) Once patients’ genetic information can be accessed, the various Pharmaceutical companies will be in position to combine, produce and supply therapeutic drugs specifically aimed at specific ailments in certain people. In such case, instances of effect spreading and affecting neighboring cells will be greatly minimized as such drugs will be developed with a specific target. Patients will always remain the highest beneficiaries of pharmacogenomics. Adoption of the medical practice will definitely result into more accurate diagnosis and prescription of drugs to patients by physicians. (Nussbaum, Robert L, Roderick R. McInnes, Huntington F. Willard, Ada Hamosh, and Margaret W. Thompson, 2007 ). While drug prescriptions are currently done basing on the patient’s weight and age, pharmacogenomics will effectively replace this approach. It will do so by encouraging and making it possible to prescribe drugs basing on individual genetic composition. This is more accurate and increases efficacy since aspects such as how well the body processes the medicine and the time it takes to metabolize it are catered for in both the formulation and prescription. Another potential benefit of pharmacogenetics is that it greatly offers better, effective and safer drugs for first time users.( Licinio, J, and Ma-Li Wong, 2002). The initial reaction of the body towards a new drug sometimes decides the subsequent series of activities and the chances of the treatment yielding expected results. Adverse side effects often come up due to unwanted reactions of the body against a certain drug. It might be hard to establish the exact individual reaction especially with trial and error prescription. However, with pharmacogenomics, overall recovery and healing time is likely to reduce alongside side effects and body reactions. Pharmacogenomics information, collection, processing and storage Required information Pharmacogenomics requires access to data that pertain to the pharmacological or pharmacodynamics aspects, pharmacokinetics, and toxicological effects of the drug if the Pharmacogenomics data is relevant to, or supports the use of the investigational product in the proposed clinical trial. Any Pharmacogenomics results from clinical pharmacokinetic studies of the drug as well as any information regarding drug safety, pharmacodynamics, efficacy and dose responses of the drug that were obtained from previous clinical trials in humans shall be submitted in instances where the results support the safety and/or efficacy of the drug for which the application is being filed. Additional information that is required to assess the safety and risks of the drug intended for use in the proposed clinical trial, and which could include Pharmacogenomics information is also required for subsequent tests. Collection information The move toward drugs that are tailored to individual genomes will necessitate that clinical drug trials be redesigned to include-perhaps extensive-genetic information about the participants. Moreover, the data collected as a part of these trials could be stored and utilized for future research into genetically-based disease. In other words, DNA likely will be collected and stored in large quantities, and that DNA will include not just the known genetic variables that are directly related to a particular research study, but also information about the individual subject's entire genome. Hence, these DNA samples could provide a host of other information about the subject, information that could be entirely unrelated to the original study but yet might prove useful for other genetic research. Information storage Pharmacogenomics information is processed through MedEx process. MedEx process is a free-text clinical record to recognize medication names and signature information, such as drug dose, frequency, route and duration.  It uses a context-free grammar and regular expression parsing to process free text clinical notes.  After finding medication information, it maps to RxNorm and UMLS concepts at the most specific match it can find. It has been applied in 2009 i2b2 Medication Extraction challenge, placing second, and formally evaluated on Vanderbilt discharge summaries and clinical notes. Information storage In the case where a patient's genetic information has been collected as a part of a clinical diagnosis, that patient him- or herself may have a strong interest in keeping the information confidential. Yet others also may believe that they have a claim over such information. Third-party health insurers also may argue that they have some right to the information, if they are to be able accurately to assess the risk they take on by insuring the individual. Finally, employers may desire access to information if they are to bear the cost of hiring and providing health insurance for that employee. In the case of research subjects who are not clinical patients, the confidentiality issues look slightly different. Although space prohibits doing so here, it is worthwhile considering more deeply the growing body of literature on biobanks, repositories of large quantities of human biological specimens that may be stored, analyzed, and distributed. Biobanks enable large-scale analysis of various diseases and health phenomena, but they also represent a link between abstract genomic data and concrete patient medical records. Pharmacogenomics and disease prediction Besides improving the ways in which existing drugs are used, genome research will lead to the development of better drugs. The goal is to produce new drugs that are highly effective and do not cause serious side effects. Until recently, drug developers usually used an approach that involved screening for chemicals with broad action against a disease. Researchers are now using genomic information to find or design drugs aimed at subgroups of patients with specific genetic profiles as well as predict occurrence of certain diseases. In addition, researchers are using pharmacogenomics tools to search for diseases that target specific molecular and cellular pathways involved in disease. Pharmacogenomics may also breathe new life into some drugs that were abandoned during the development process. Conclusion Pharmacogenomics-based research findings as well as reports Have already found use in modern medical practice and are even being used in clinical practice and administering treatment. The adoption, implementation and introduction of the pharmacogenomics principles in modern medicine clearly points out at the tremendous research efforts in translational medicine. It also serves as a major step and breakthrough towards evidence-based individualized molecular medicine, Medicare designed to meet individual molecular composition. Despite the huge efforts, there is need to conduct more research so as to realize full implementation of such and similar modern and new medical technologies as an approach to better and effective treatment. There exist a number of hurdles and challenges in introducing new technologies in medical practice, a quite normal phenomenon. Such modern strategies, coupled with the current technological sophistication are bound to combine well and effectively provide the ever desired guidance for medical and clinical practice. It is prudent that most institutions make subsequent adjustments to embrace and implement such programs if they are to offer services in line with the changing technology and patient requirements. References Altman, Russ, David A. Flockhart, and David B. Goldstein. Principles of Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Print. Gelehrter, Thomas D, Francis S. Collins, and David Ginsburg. Principles of Medical Genetics. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 2008. Print. Innocenti, Federico. Pharmacogenomics: Methods and Protocols. Totowa, N.J: Humana Press, 2005. Internet resource. Lam, Yui-Wing F, and Larisa H. Cavallari. Pharmacogenomics: Challenges and Opportunities in Therapeutic Implementation. Burlington: Elsevier Science, 2013. Internet resource. Licinio, J, and Ma-Li Wong. Pharmacogenomics: The Search for Individualized Therapies. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH, 2002. Internet resource. Meyer, Jerrold S, and Linda F. Quenzer. Psychopharmacology: Drugs, the Brain, and Behavior. Sunderland, Mass: Sinauer Associates, 2013. Print. Mrazek, David. Psychiatric Pharmacogenomics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print. Nussbaum, Robert L, Roderick R. McInnes, Huntington F. Willard, Ada Hamosh, and Margaret W. Thompson. Thompson & Thompson Genetics in Medicine. Philadelphia: Saunders/Elsevier, 2007. Internet resource. Rothstein, Mark A. Pharmacogenomics: Social, Ethical, and Clinical Dimensions. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley-Liss, 2003. Internet resource. Wong, Steven H. Y, Mark W. Linder, and Roland Valdes. Pharmacogenomics and Proteomics: Enabling the Practice of Personalized Medicine. Washington, DC: AAC Press, 2006. Print. Read More