Translation and Implementation of Pharmacogenomic Testing in Daily Clinical Practice: Considering Current Challenges and Future Needs

The field of pharmacogenomics (PGx) has received a great deal of attention over the last decade, which has led to a remarkable growth in many areas of clinical research. However, the implementation of advances and findings from pharmacogenetics into routine clinical practice still comes with many challenges. Many road blocks relating to the clinical validity and clinical utility of PGx-tests include the following: insufficient background knowledge of physicians and general practitioners about the interpretation of a given PGx test result, lack of a global standardized program and/or guideline to perform PGx testing in clinics (how to select the target patients), low number of insurance systems supporting the costs of such tests, and a lack of specialized infrastructure for an advanced panel based PGx testing that can be implemented in any clinical center that would need it. Importantly, an interactive exchange and discussion on precision medicine between physicians and other health care professionals and researchers would help bridge the gap between the ongoing efforts in research and the needs in clinical practice to ultimately ensure that PGx testing with sound clinical utility can be brought to every patient in need. When focusing on the integration of PGx tests into daily practices of every clinical centers, future efforts may focus on providing more population-specific pharmacovariant evidence and panel-based sequencing approaches targeted for particular ethnic groups. Also, a more widespread and readily available access to local genomic databases alongside the PGx maps for individuals in portable format such as a health e-card (i.e. PGx passport in U-PGx project) might be necessary. To address and aim to resolve the above-mentioned issues, new and upcoming studies and evaluations are warranted and must be taken considered. However, the first step notably seems to be a comprehensive analytical survey accessing the background knowledge of physicians and/or clinicians and their willingness to order and perform clinical PGx tests that would benefit both the individual and the community as a whole in any country across the globe.

The aim of this Research Topic is to show case studies that focus on raising more PGx awareness and a better understanding of the associated challenges and needs, which is a fundamental step leading to implementation by healthcare worldwide. Submissions should discuss and address the present challenges and future needs of approaches aiming to perform PGx testing as a routine test in any kind of clinical context.

We welcome submissions of Original Research, Review, Mini-review, and Systematic Review articles dealing with the following themes, including but not limited to:

• Pharmacogenomics and integration in public healthcare systems

• Pharmacogenomics performed in clinical centers.

• Pharmacogenomic testing performed in private companies.

• Pharmacogenomics and precision medicine available in developing countries.

• Genomic data management and optimization for pharmacogenomic testing performed in clinical centers.

• Direct translation of pharmacogenomic testing into routine clinical practice.