By Kathy Engle, Vitals contributor

Each year, 50 million people are prescribed statins to manage high cholesterol—a vital step in preventing heart disease. Yet, half of them stop taking their medication, putting millions of patients at risk for worsening heart disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control, heart disease remains the leading cause of death for men and women in most racial and ethnic groups in the United States.

At Sutter’s Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) an innovative pilot program is exploring ways to help patients stay on their statins. The program studies how a patient’s genes affect their response to statins — a specialty called pharmacogenetics, PGx.

“If we can predict the best statin for a patient to use and minimize side effects while maximizing drug effectiveness, we can help more patients stay on their medication and keep them healthier,” explains Sharon Chan, PAMF pharmacogenetics pilot manager. “This is individualized medicine at its finest, bringing the power of possibility to cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment.”

A Collaborative Approach to Whole Person Care

Over the next six months, participants in the program will undergo PGx testing through saliva sampling. Tests can help identify variants in three genes that affect the rate patients metabolize statins — too fast the drug won’t lower cholesterol effectively, too slow and the patient might feel side effects like fatigue, cramping or nausea, or normal metabolism indicating the correct treatment. The program brings together an expert team of cardiologists, pharmacists and genetics specialists at PAMF to evaluate testing results for 200 patients and counsel those whose genetics show they carry variants that warrant personalized statin management.

The team is identifying patients who may benefit from PGx for the pilot now. Cardiologists Dr. Lynette Lissin and Dr. Erik Price will collaborate with pharmacist Lana Pun to recommend tailored statin therapies for patients who could benefit most. The next step of the pilot will survey participants’ and clinicians’ experience throughout the PGx pilot as well as study the clinical outcomes of LDL levels after the pilot. Survey results will help the team understand how Sutter Health may be able to incorporate PGx for other medications — helping even more patients with other health concerns.

A Healthier Future for Families

One of the more inspiring aspects of this program is its potential ripple effect. Patients will be encouraged to share their genetic results with other family members through a process called cascade testing. By identifying shared genetic traits, families can proactively address health risks together, transforming not just individual health outcomes but family well-being across generations.

This groundbreaking pilot is made possible through a philanthropic innovation award—demonstrating how donor support helps turn bold ideas into life-changing realities.

Today, one in eight genetic tests reveals information that can help physicians personalize prescriptions for patients. Results of this pilot will help care teams evaluate the clinical benefit and scalability of PGx testing throughout Sutter Health, bringing the promise of pharmacogenetics to more patients across our network.

“While this first pilot focuses on cardiovascular health, we know there could be other therapeutic benefit for PGx testing,” adds Chan. “Genetic testing can also help evaluate how patients metabolize other drugs for conditions including cancer and psychiatric medications — maximizing effectiveness while minimizing side effects for many more patients across other diseases.”

If you are interested in supporting philanthropic programs to help advance medical innovations like this pilot, contact Shannon Brady at Shannon.brady@sutterhealth.org.