Pharmacogenetic testing (PGx) is a new approach at looking at a person’s body composition and using the information to understand and forecast how it will react to certain medicine prescribed by your doctor. If your medicine is not working well for you, there might be a chance that your DNA may be a source of the problem. PGx testing is a simple laboratory test that is offered through doctors to determine if your genes may be a part of why your medical prescription does not work well or if it causes other negative side effects.

Modern approaches to prescribing medicine differ greatly from doctor to doctor, but most physicians tend to treat patients starting with medicines that treat a broad spectrum of symptoms. In the case of antibiotics, doctors will start with an antibiotic that will treat a large group of bacterial infections. If the treatment does not work, the doctor will switch to another antibiotic until they find one that is effective for their patient. If antibiotics continuously fail, doctors will often at that point ask for specific PGx testing to see what is exactly causing this infection. This broad spectrum approach to prescription medicine often leads to the ineffective use of medicines (close to 50%). It can also unnecessarily expose your body to drugs you do not need (thus lowering your resistance to that drug/antibiotic when you do need it), or it can be harmful as it wastes valuable treatment time, and can be very expensive as you rule out ineffective treatments. PGx testing saves you valuable time in your treatment and stops the trial and error approach by identifying in the beginning what is the best medicine available to you based on how your genes will react to the medication.

Your doctor will take a mouth swab from you in their office and send it to our laboratory. The testing takes about 6-8 hours depending on the test. Your results will be sent in a digital report for them to share with you and plan your future treatment.