Poor adherence to medications has been associated with worsening disease progression, death, and increased healthcare costs. At least a third of all medication‐related hospital admissions in the United States are due to poor medication adherence, with a resultant cost of approximately 100 billion dollars a year. There is limited and mixed evidence that pharmacogenomic information may improve adherence. Research into pharmacogenomics and its clinical implementation aims to increase the efficacy of medications through personalized prescribing based on patient‐specific genetic risk factors. Genetic variation among patients has been shown to have a significant impact on risk of efficacy and toxicity for many medications. The personal and interactive nature of pharmacogenomic‐informed care may help address key factors that lead to poor medication adherence, such as perceived need/efficacy, cost, concerns about side effects, and limited patient engagement in treatment decisions.

This study aimed to show that the utilization of a healthcare delivery model that incorporates information on multiple risk variants to assist physician prescribing offers the potential to assess the possible larger impact of pharmacogenomics on medication adherence. We hypothesized that providing personalized, genomic‐informed care—through the use of a pharmacogenomic CDS tool—would significantly increase patient composite adherence rates to prescribed medications, as compared with standard outpatient care.