Clinical utilities and end-user experience of pharmacogenomics: 39 mo of clinical implementation experience in an Australian hospital setting

Abstract

BACKGROUND Pharmacogenomics (PG) testing is under-utilised in Australia. Our research provides Australia-specific data on the perspectives of patients who have had PG testing and those of the clinicians involved in their care, with the aim to inform wider adoption of PG into routine clinical practice. AIM To investigate the frequency of actionable drug gene interactions and assess the perceived utility of PG among patients and clinicians METHODS We conducted a retrospective audit of PG undertaken by 100 patients at an Australian public hospital genetics service from 2018 to 2021. Via electronic surveys we compared and contrasted the experience, understanding and usage of results between these patients and their clinicians. RESULTS Of 100 patients who had PG, 84% were taking prescription medications, of which 67% were taking medications with actionable drug-gene interactions. Twenty-five out of 81 invited patients and 17 out of 89 invited clinicians completed the surveys. Sixty-eight percent of patients understood their PG results and 48% had medications changed following testing. Paired patient-clinician surveys showed patient-perceived utility and experience was positive, contrasting their clinicians’ hesitancy on PG adoption who identified insufficient education/training, lack of clinical support, test turnaround time and cost as barriers to adoption. CONCLUSION Our dichotomous findings between the perspectives of our patient and clinician cohorts suggest the uptake of PG is likely to be driven by patients and clinicians need to be prepared to provide information and guidance to their patients.