The Vancouver Clinic in Washington is integrating patients’ genetic information into Epic workflows, allowing providers to personalize therapies and manage hereditary risks. Whenever providers order medications in Epic, they can see real-time alerts for any potential adverse reactions or issues with drug efficacy based on the patient’s genetics.

“The ability to use a patient’s individual genomic information as we care for them, and to consider this as we make treatment decisions about the use of medication, will make a powerful difference in our ability to give people the very best care available,” said Marcia Sparling, M.D., medical director for operations and IT at The Vancouver Clinic.

To get a head start on the project, Vancouver Clinic partnered with ActX Genomic Decision Support, a genomics data vendor which provides patients with lab kits to send their genetic information. About 87% of the patients who submit genetic data to ActX have at least one medication-related alert in Epic, and about 3-4% of patients have a serious and actionable risk alert.

Read more here. Epic community members can read about a similar program completed by the University of Florida here.