Safer and More Effective Prescribing - DNA Powered Testing

The Challenge

myDNA, in collaboration with Melbourne Health, has pioneered a pharmacogenomic decision support tool that links a patient’s DNA results with known drug metabolic profiles using the software system to predict likely individual drug performance, and to provide a treatment decision support tool for doctors.

This system is a secure web based system that will be adaptable to most health services settings.

Until recently there has been no easily accessible method or technology available to determine how any one individual would respond to particular medications. This trial and error process often leads to delayed response time, frustration, and increased medical costs. There are many drugs to choose from, and individual patients have highly variable responses. Doses are often started at low levels and are increased slowly until a result is observed. This approach, driven by the need to avoid adverse events, lengthens the time that patients continue to experience symptoms or begin to get well.

The Solution

The PDSS technology overcomes the need for health professionals to have expertise in genetics or pharmacogenomics, giving them an easily understandable consultation with clinical recommendations that not only helps them understand the results, but allows them to tailor the prescription to the specific patient and gain the best result in the fastest possible time.

The result

The software that was pioneered by myDNA and Melbourne Health can be used in many other fields of personalised medicine. It can also be used to convert the raw DNA results into clinically useful reports, with wide application.

This article originally appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald – 2016