Athenahealth modifies genomics decision support for physicians

Ambulatory software vendor Athenahealth now is providing physicians the capability to have genomics decision support at their fingertips when working in the EHRs (electronic health records system).

Athenahealth has integrated decision support software from ActX into the electronic health record workflow to instruct physicians on suitable therapies that will mesh with sufferers’ genetic makeup, making better the odds that medications and other therapies will work, and side effects can be ignored.

“We’re stepping into a new era in precision medicine, permitting doctors to tailor therapy based on molecular data, in this case, genomics,” claims Andrew Ury, founder and CEO at ActX.

For example, each prescription is monitored and checked for efficacy to assess if it’ll work with a patient’s genomics, or if a side effect could establish, or if the dosing is correct, he adds. If a problem arises, the EHR will warn the physician.

Genomics decision support software in electronic health records also can alert physicians to the potential of a risk of hereditary cancer or heart disease, which would warrant regular monitoring. 3% of patients have a high risk of hereditary cancer, Ury claims.

With the genomics decision support, athenahealth also can build genomic profiles of sufferers covering medications, dangers, current health status and the threat of passing on critical diseases to children, like cystic fibrosis, even if parents do not have the ailment but carry a variant gene, he further adds.

The integrated decision support is live and available to athenahealth’s 75,000 contributors, as well as future clients. Physicians and other providers can go to the app store on the athenahealth site, choose ActX, view a video of the app and get more data before deciding to purchase it, says Lindsey Kempton, manager of athenahealth’s More Disruption Please innovation accelerator program.

To get the genomics decision support embedded in an electronic health record, a practice registers on the website of athenahealth and the vendors will activate the service.

Sufferers generally pay for genetic testing, getting a test kit sent to their home, submitting a saliva sample and sending it to ActX. Physicians are cautioned only if serious or actual threats are discovered. The price for patients is $395.