Plavix, Plavix, Plavix

I just finished up giving a Yale Affiliated Hospitals Lecture to a bunch of residents on the topic of pharmacogenomics. Not to toot my own horn, but several residents came up to me and asked......"Why didn't I learn this in medical school?" Even better was the 3rd year medical students who just finished up Pharmacology last year....they said "The EXACT SAME THING".......

Ok, so here's my beef. Why in the hell aren't we teaching this in medical school. I know I have said this before......but what in the hell is going on here? We have data and not just data , but DAMN GOOD data....and instead we are still pumping JakStat pathways down the throats of our second year medical students.....

I have a very big problem here and I need it fixed. Why can't we get physicians who study PgX to teach this? It is simple really, I know many more doctors who like PgX than who like other sides of genetics.....why not let them in to teach these students????

I see no barriers other than cost of paying clinical faculty, which is always the barrier.....

That being said, even with the great Plavix data out there, we still have non believers....

An editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine hints at it.

Entitled "Personalized genetic Prediction: Too Limited, Too Expensive, or Too Soon?"

It gives me a reason to say bull$h!t

The title is an eye catcher which most busy clinicians won't read, but instead use the title as a guide post for attitudes on this subject....Trust me, I know clinicians who did precisely that.

You see, the problem with this editorial is that it should have been titled "9p21 to predict cardiovascular risk: Too Limited, Too expensive, or Too soon?"

I love how the Annals completely makes a hash of what Personalized Medicine is!

A quote from the editorial

"As these studies show, we are still far from personalized medicine."

I guess Dr. John doesn't see pharmacogenomics as part of Personalized Medicine

Or maybe he just doesn't read the New England Journal of Medicine......

Either way.....this is not a responsible way to publish a journal and disseminate personal opinion.

I personally think it is because the ACP (American College of Physicians) does not have good advice on how best to get its body up to speed on this stuff.

But I know this is not exactly true, because they sponsor Mike Murray's Harvard course on the Genetic Basis of Adult Disease, which has one lecturer on Pharmacogenomics

So why? Why did they fail to include personalized medicine into the ACP meeting?

Why did they let this guy give the opinion that disease prediction was the only thing in personalized medicine?

Why? I have no clue. But I would love to have someone from the ACP tell me.......

Please!

The Sherpa Says: Education, Regulation and Litigation will be the drivers of this field.....Not the Data......That is a damn shame. And yes, I did go to Penn State!