Asynchronous consult report generation for pharmacogenomic clinical support: Time and motion

Abstract

As pharmacogenomic (PGx) testing becomes more commonplace in clinical practice, appropriate application of laboratory data to all relevant medications becomes necessary to maximize PGx value. However, many clinicians lack PGx knowledge and confidence, so prescribers may appreciate clinical support when applying PGx data to a patient's entire medication list. Pharmacists routinely provide PGx consult support, and asynchronous written consults may improve logistical simplicity, but specific process steps and time expectations are less settled. Four pharmacists produced written consult reports for 18 patient cases across three rounds of review. Discussion took place before each of the three rounds to drive consensus in steps, process, and resources used. Time per process step was tracked in the third round. Asynchronous written PGx consult reports generally required less than 30 min to generate if no more than 2 medications had PGx-based guidance, but that time more than doubled when more medications require PGx-based guidance. After three rounds of review, pharmacists found consensus regarding an optimal workflow for generating a PGx consult. Findings from this study may support pharmacist training, practice management, and expectation management for asynchronous written PGx consult development.