Pharmacogenomics platforms integrated with electronic health records are becoming more common. Nicklaus Children’s Hospital has connected a genomic decision support platform to its Oracle Cerner EHR to provide physicians with real-time alerts based on the patient’s genetics, within the normal physician workflow.
The 309-bed hospital, known as Miami Children’s Hospital from 1983 through 2014, is home to the largest pediatric teaching program in the southeastern United States. The Nicklaus Children's Hospital network includes more than a dozen outpatient centers extending from Martin County to southern Miami-Dade County.
The hospital has begun using the ActX Genomic Decision Support platform, which is connected into the Oracle Cerner EHR.
After genetic testing, the results are uploaded into the ActX platform, and become actionable within Oracle Cerner Millennium. For example, when a physician goes to prescribe a medication, an automatic background check against the patient’s genetics occurs, and the physician is alerted if drug efficacy, risk of side effects, or dosing are affected by the patient’s genetics. A genomic profile for each patient is also now part of the patient chart.
“Our partnership with ActX is a cornerstone for clinical precision medicine at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital” said Steven J. Melnick, Ph.D., M.D., chief of the Department of Pathology and Clinical Laboratories Medical Director, Nicklaus Children’s Biobank, in a statement. “We are for the first time able to provide enterprise-wide seamless integration of actionable pharmacogenetics (PGx) data from the Pharmacoscan pharmacogenetics test platform used in our clinical laboratory with medication decision support for all of our physicians. We are confident that this functionality will vastly improve safety and efficacy of medical therapy for our patients. Beyond PGx, we look forward to continuing our partnership with ActX with expansion of other areas of genomic data integration in the years to come.”
In addition to pharmacogenomics, Nicklaus said it plans to expand the platform use across many other genetic conditions.
“We are excited to partner with Nicklaus Children’s Hospital as they bring precision medicine to patient care at the bedside or in the clinic. With ActX Genomic Decision Support connected directly into their Cerner (Millennium) EHR, ActX will provide seamless point-of-care decision support to Nicklaus’s physicians. Our shared goal is to help improve patient outcomes” said Andrew Ury, M.D., CEO of ActX, in a statement.
Other health systems that have partnered with ActX include NorthShore University HealthSystem, Ochsner Health, Mount Sinai Medical Center, and Cone Health.
