Aim:To investigate patient experiences with pharmacogenetic (PGx) testing. Methods: Patients were offered PGx testing through a study on pharmacist-assisted delivery of PGx testing and invited to complete pre-and post-testing surveys about their experience. Results: Of 63 patients tested, 17 completed the baseline survey (27%). Interest in testing was mostly impacted by desire to inform selection of best treatment (n = 13). Seven of 12 patients that completed the follow-up survey indicated that their provider discussed the test result with them. Five patients understood their test result very or somewhat well. All would be likely to have PGx testing again. Conclusion: Patients perceived PGx testing to be useful, though more effort may be needed to improve patient-provider communication of test results.

Effective medications are a cornerstone of prevention and disease treatment, yet only about half of patients take their medications as prescribed, resulting in a common and costly public health challenge for the US health care system. Since poor medication adherence is a complex problem with many contributing causes, there is no one universal solution. This paper describes interventions that were not only effective in improving medication adherence among patients with diabetes, but were also potentially scalable (ie, easy to implement to a large population). We identify key characteristics that make these interventions effective and scalable. This information is intended to inform health care systems seeking proven, low resource, cost-effective solutions to improve medication adherence.

Aim. To investigate provider utilization of pharmacist support in the delivery of pharmacogenetic testing in a primary care setting. Methods. Two primary care clinics within Duke University Health System participated in the study between December 2012 and July 2013. One clinic was provided with an in-house pharmacist and the second clinic had an on-call pharmacist. Results: Providers in the in-house pharmacist arm consulted with the pharmacist for 13 of 15 cases, or about one of every four patients tested compared with one of every 7.5 patients in the on-call pharmacist arm. A total of 63 tests were ordered, 48 by providers in the pharmacist-in-house arm. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the availability of an in-house pharmacist increases the likelihood of pharmacogenetic test utilization.

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PGx testing incorporated into a clinical MTM service offered by pharmacists may be a feasible delivery model and is satisfactory to patients.