New medical tool tailors drug doses to each patient

By Ira Zunin

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jan 12, 2013

~~<p>Prescribe one pain medicine to a patient with a broken leg and it will work fine. Try that medicine at the same dose on another patient and it's not enough, while a third person complains of nausea and vomiting. Pharmacogenomics seeks to predict the impact of genetic variation on a person's response to medication in an effort to find the right fit for each individual. Could it save money? Perhaps.</p>
<p>The field is still in its early stages. Millennium Laboratories began offering pharmacogenomics testing in Hawaii last year.</p>
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Prescribe one pain medicine to a patient with a broken leg and it will work fine. Try that medicine at the same dose on another patient and it's not enough, while a third person complains of nausea and vomiting. Pharmacogenomics seeks to predict the impact of genetic variation on a person's response to medication in an effort to find the right fit for each individual. Could it save money? Perhaps.

The field is still in its early stages. Millennium Laboratories began offering pharmacogenomics testing in Hawaii last year. Login for more...