May 2018
Dropping Big Data To Focus On Small Data 
At Rupert Case Management

The world seems to be obsessed with big data.  Data collected from many people.  When it comes to patient care, we are pleased to be contrarians. We focus on small data collected from one person.

To us, small data is the really important information that makes all the difference to the patient in terms of safety and clinical outcomes.

The team at RCM uses small data to help us determine how to best manage our patient's medications. Some medications will work as expected. Other times, the medications won't work. And in some of those cases, there can be adverse reactions to medications that can be very serious.

To help our patients, we test their genes using a simple saliva test. This is called pharmacogenomics.


Pharmacogenomics is the study of how genes affect a person's response to drugs. This relatively new field combines pharmacology (the science of drugs) and genomics (the study of genes and their functions) to develop effective, safe medication recommendations and doses that will be tailored to a person's genetic makeup.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Many drugs that are currently available are "one size fits all," but they don't work the same way for everyone. It can be difficult to predict who will benefit from a medication, who will not respond at all, and who will experience negative side effects (called adverse drug reactions).

We use a patient's personalized small data to prevent potential adverse drug events, which can be of serious concern. Our approach at RCM is a "person centred approach" to eliminating medication errors.

The pharmacogenomic report that comes to RCM is based on the individual's genes. The report predicts how the patient will respond to over 300 commonly used drugs. This allows for smarter drug prescribing decisions to be made.

Some patients are rapid metabolizers and need higher doses of medications. Other 
patients are slow metabolizers and require smaller doses of medications. The report indicates how the prescribing doctor should adjust the dosing. This can be very important to the patient especially with mental health drugs or cardiac drugs.
Case Study:  
                               
One husband and wife team wanted their pharmacogenomics testing done. 

The husband was about to start chemotherapy and wanted to know how the dosing of chemo drugs should be varied based on his genes. The wife had a cardiac condition and she wanted to know how the dosing of her heart medications should be varied based on her genes. 

The reports provided that information. We sent copies of the report to both the prescribing doctors and the dispensing pharmacists so that the information could be used to guide their decision making.
The Changing Role Of The Team At RCM:                                  
Team members at RCM are becoming clinician analysts working with small data.

Genomics testing and cloud analytics enables precision prescribing for our clients.

Our job as clinician analysts is to increase the safety in using medications and to protect our clients from adverse drug reactions.
TO START THE CONVERSATION:                                               
To learn more -  call, click or email.

1-800-620-7551 or 647-350-5500
 
 
 
It all starts with a conversation.   We are always pleased to help.
 

           



           Raymond Rupert MD. MBA.
           Founder/Medical Director
           Rupert Case Management Inc.
           505 Eglinton Avenue West, Suite 203
           Toronto, ON M5N 1B1
           
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