Physician Support Services USA
Opioid Taper Research and Development
Pharmaceutical Consulting
When translating precision medicine concepts into precision therapeutic applications, significant technical and operational challenges arise.
The biological determinants of interpatient variability are increasingly well characterized. The ability to systematically translate those insights into individualized therapeutic interventions remains limited. The challenge is no longer principally one of understanding variability, but of implementing treatments based upon that understood variability in a way that is reproducible and scalable.
Implementation sometimes depends not only on advances in biological understanding, but also on the development of new techniques of manufacturing, dosing, and clinical implementation approaches that needed to operationalize that knowledge.
The scientific understanding of patient heterogeneity has advanced more rapidly than the therapeutic infrastructure required to address it.
PHYSICIAN SUPPORT SERVICES is focused mainly on two very diverse areas of precision therapeutics: 1. Since 2017 we have been looking at therapeutic solutions made possible by precision buprenorphine tapering for qualified patients who are receiving long-term opioid maintenance therapy. 2. More recently we have focused on diverse precision medicine challenges, including medication optimization for patients presenting with heat-related illness and complex medication regimens. With tapering, many of the challenges are in the mechanics of making doses that differ by microgram differences and in harnessing cutting-edge compounding technology so as to produce tapers aligned with the consensus understanding of taper dosing. In the treatment of polypharmacy cases with patients suffering from heat stroke it is about developing a deep understanding of potential medication interactions in patients whose body temperature has changed in such a way to change the action of many if not most, of the medications they are prescribed. In both settings, the objective is the same: to move beyond population-based treatment assumptions and toward therapeutic decisions tailored to the individual patient.
PHYSICIAN SUPPORT SERVICES is focused mainly on two very diverse areas of precision therapeutics: 1. Since 2017 we have been looking at therapeutic solutions made possible by precision buprenorphine tapering for qualified patients who are receiving long-term opioid maintenance therapy. 2. More recently we have focused on diverse precision medicine challenges, including medication optimization for patients presenting with heat-related illness and complex medication regimens. With tapering, many of the challenges are in the mechanics of making doses that differ by microgram differences and in harnessing cutting-edge compounding technology so as to produce tapers aligned with the consensus understanding of taper dosing. In the treatment of polypharmacy cases with patients suffering from heat stroke it is about developing a deep understanding of potential medication interactions in patients whose body temperature has changed in such a way to change the action of many if not most, of the medications they are prescribed. In both settings, the objective is the same: to move beyond population-based treatment assumptions and toward therapeutic decisions tailored to the individual patient.
Translation and Implementation of Precision Medicine Concepts
Vincent Idemyor, PharmD
Pharmaceutical Consulting
Professor of Clinical Pharmacology/Clinical Pharmacy
Global Healthcare Consultant