FDB (First Databank), a provider of clinical drug knowledge that improves medication-related decisions and patient outcomes, and Translational Software, Inc. (TSI), a provider of intelligent use of genetic data for clinical decision support, have announced a collaboration to develop pharmacogenomics (PGx)-based drug knowledge within health information system workflows.

The new drug knowledge will combine FDB’s MedKnowledge content and TSI’s proprietary PGx knowledge base data with relevant genomic-based laboratory findings to help clinicians make informed medication decisions for effective patient treatment. Integrated within the existing clinical workflow, the drug knowledge will provide pre-emptive testing prompts, genomic decision support, and advanced drug-drug-gene interaction alerting.

Initial use cases will enable clinicians to consider the genomic profile of a patient when making prescribing decisions (such as recommendations for drug monitoring, dose adjustments or prescribe contraindicated); and to consider genomic-related risk information when two drugs are prescribed together. This functionality will help guide clinical decision making, minimize adverse reactions and enable physicians to prescribe the most effective medication in a manner that meets the unique needs of individual patients.

“Our collaboration with Translational Software is very exciting as it expands our clinical care guidance capabilities into pharmacogenomics and lays the foundation for the future of advanced medication decision support and precision medicine,” said Charles Tuchinda, M.D., MBA, president, FDB. “We now have a treasure trove of pharmacogenomic data that, when integrated with FDB MedKnowledge directly in the workflow of prescribing clinicians, provides them with actionable data that enables more precise and targeted therapeutic decisions to positively impact patient medication outcomes and care.”

The pharmacogenomics care guidance drug knowledge will be uniquely deployed through the FDB Cloud Connector, a web services API platform, and will leverage interoperable drug vocabularies published by the ONC so that the services can be deployed regardless of the drug knowledge provider used in the clinician’s underlying electronic health record system. FDB will also draw on its deep clinical expertise and decades of experience in working with customers to optimize medication alerts to meet the unique needs of a particular practice setting.

Don Rule, CEO of TSI, stated, “PGx testing is one of the fastest growing areas of adoption in precision medicine because there is excellent evidence available to improve the safety and efficacy of prescribed medications. In order to realize the benefit, clinicians need specialized decision support tools that help them understand the implications of the information quickly. We are excited to work with FDB because of their presence in the clinical market and their shared vision to develop PGx-aware tools that will reduce alert fatigue, optimize medication response and increase therapeutic effectiveness.”