YouScript, a clinical decision support tool designed to assist in medication therapy management, has been shown to reduce hospital readmissions by 52% and ER visits by 42% in patients over 50 taking multiple medications when combined with pharmacogenetic testing.
Researchers at Harding University and Unity Health-White County Medical Center, in collaboration with Genelex Labs, and YouScript conducted a randomized controlled trial in a high-risk population of chronically ill polypharmacy patients aged 50 years and older admitted to home health care after an in-patient hospitalization.
The trial was designed to incorporate pharmacogenetic data into an integrated clinical decision support system and compare results to a standard drug information system. Results of the study were recently published in PLOS ONE.
In addition to re-hospitalization and ER visit metrics, the study examined secondary endpoints, including death and Medicare administrative quality measures. Risk of death decreased by 85%, compared with a control group, and researchers estimated a potential per capita cost savings of $4,382 based on Medicare average all-cause readmission and ER visit cost in only 60 days.
“If reproduced across the entire Medicare home health population, this would save billions of dollars and thousands of lives every year,” Kristine Ashcraft, CEO of YouScript, said in a statement.
