I’m in the middle of several projects now, so I just wanted to share a bunch of links with you about the recent improvements and news of personalized medicine. If you read these posts/articles/papers, you’re going to be totally up-to-date in this field.
- Personalized Medicine, Part 1: Coumadin (warfarin) and Part 2: Metabolic Activation of Codeine to Morphine: a must read.
…individual patients respond quite differently to the same dose of Coumadin. Two genetic markers have been identified… and the FDA has suggested that they be used to determine the minimal starting dose of Coumadin; patients with variations in these genetic markers may require a smaller dose of Coumadin than those with the normal, or “reference,” gene marker.
- Genetic Testing Cited for Blood Thinner (ABC News)
- Genomic Medicine Hits Mainstream Milestone (Wired Science)
Because it takes time to get test results, doctors typically have to decide the initial dose using older methods. Some testing labs say they can deliver results in one to three days.
- The FDA’s big personalized-medicine push (VentureBeat)
More generally, the implementation of pharmacogenomics in routine clinical practice presents significant challenges. This article presents specific clinical examples of such challenges and discusses how obstacles to implementation of pharmacogenomic testing can be addressed.
Follow Hsien, Steve, Blaine, Jason, Ogan and many other quality bloggers for more in the field of personalized medicine (of course, don’t miss Scienceroll either…).
