This study aims to determine whether preemptively obtained pharmacogenomic information
can be delivered and utilized at the point-of-care across multiple institutions
specifically in African American patients at risk for minority health disparities. The
investigators have chosen the high-stakes, rapid-paced setting of inpatient medicine for
this implementation study. The investigators seek to examine whether the availability of
pharmacogenomic information improves prescribing.
The investigators will enroll adults at one of three institutions, The University of
Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Northwestern University. During an
initial (enrollment) hospital inpatient encounter, patients will be consented and a blood
sample will be obtained for preemptive genotyping across a panel of actionable germline
variants predicting drug response or toxicity risk. Patients will also be targeted for
enrollment who are highly likely to initiate future warfarin therapy. Patients will be
recruited to two primary cohorts. In the feasibility cohort, all patients will have their
actionable pharmacogenomic results (with decision support) available to inpatient
treating physicians for the duration of the study, once genotyping is completed, via the
Genomic Prescribing System (GPS). Physicians and pharmacists will be individually
approached for enrollment through a process of direct stakeholder engagement and informed
consent. Participating providers will give permission for their medication decisions to
be analyzed. Providers will never be instructed how to practice nor how to prescribe, and
it is their choice whether or not to use GPS. GPS accession, use, and all medications
prescribed throughout the admission will be passively recorded by the research team, for
all patients, and an analysis of the impact of GPS results and decision-supports will be
performed.
For the African American warfarin cohort, patients newly-starting warfarin will be
enrolled at the time of new warfarin initiation and then randomized such that their
treating physicians and pharmacists either have access to African American-specific
warfarin dosing guidance via GPS, or not. The frequency of unfavorable (high-risk)
scenarios related to warfarin-related clinical outcomes will be examined in each group.