An immense medication management trial sponsored by Leumit Health Care Services, an Israeli health fund, and Teva Pharmaceuticals is ending this year. The trial examined the clinical outcomes of using integrated drug and gene interaction alerts in an EHR, something few other studies have done and which has been sorely needed in the industry.

The study involved Leumit integrating a new medication management program, DDI+, into the EHR of half of its prescribers. This is a huge population — Leumit is working with its entire body of 2,000 doctors and 700,000 patients. Additionally, a 1000-patient genetic-testing subarm received Genelex testing for the genes CYP2D6, CYP2C9, CYP2C9 and VKORC1. DDI+ was created with information from First Databank and YouScript® and provides prescribers with graphic alerts for potential adverse effects.

Outcome variables included the number of emergency room referrals, hospitalizations, imaging procedures and the number of medications, as well as the costs associated with these variables. As of now, data collection is complete and preliminary numbers are promising. Initial results also showed a small but significant drop in the number of hospitalizations, drugs used and imaging procedures performed. Additionally, a substantial number of physicians changed their prescribing patterns when they received warnings.

Final analysis is still underway and is expected to be published early next year.