Pharmacogenomics- Essential to end the era of trial and error medicine

Chandni Luthra, Co-Founder, FutureMed elucidates on the impact that trial and error has had on patients earlier, but in today's age adverse drug reactions is considered to be the fourth leading cause of death worldwide and has almost doubled in India in the last three years

Doctors always want to get it right the first time when treating their patients, but in reality, the strategy to making it “just right” is more like Goldilocks approach. When a patient comes in for a diagnosis, the doctor has the following options- aggressive, mild or standard. Most patients are prescribed a standard treatment, some may do well while others do not get any benefit or may even experience sever side effects. In such cases, new medicine will be recommended and the same cycle will continue. This trial and error may have been acceptable earlier, but in today’s age when adverse drug reactions is considered to be the fourth leading cause of death worldwide and has almost doubled in India since the last three years, clinicians need to do better especially when the stakes are high, the advance of disease is rapid and cost-effectiveness is a must.