# African American Cardiovascular pharmacogenetic CONsorTium (ACCOuNT): discovery and translation

> **NIH NIH U54** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $626,351

## Abstract

Pharmacogenomics is the study of genetic factors governing drug response and toxicity. This field has led to
discovery of genetic variants impacting response or toxicity for hundreds of drugs, but the information has
infrequently been utilized in prescribing decisions. Implementation has been hampered by questions about the
clinical utility of associations, poor physician knowledge about drug-gene relationships, limited avenues for
testing, and delays in the receipt of pharmacogenomic results.
To address these barriers, the Genomics Prescribing System (GPS) was developed and tested within the1200
Patient’s Project. This proposal is based, in part, on preliminary work that ACCOuNT investigators have
undertaken in the area of pharmacogenomic implementation. Specifically, we conducted a single-institution
implementation science project aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of establishing and utilizing an
individualized health care model of preemptive pharmacogenomic testing with instantaneous
pharmacogenomic results delivery and clinical decision support at the point-of-care.
In our Translational Project, we hypothesize that prospectively genotyping and incorporating African-American
specific genetic variants into clinical care will influence physician-prescribing and therapeutic effectiveness.
We will test this hypothesis with the following aims: 1) Incorporate race-specific SNPs and recommendations
into GPS for selected cardiovascular medications, 2) Create a cohort of African Americans patients receiving
care using GPS guided therapy, and 3) Assess prescribing decisions and clinical outcomes related to racespecific
recommendations via GPS within ACCOuNT institutions.
Through the infrastructure of ACCOuNT we will conduct our translational efforts with a patient-centered
approach that incorporates the input of community partners, frontline physicians and African American
patients, who will provide input on relevant clinical phenotypes in this populations. We anticipate that these
studies will reveal attitudes of both physician and patient to this novel technology, as well as the benefit to both
patients and physicians in terms of clinical outcomes and quality of care received. We will be creating a large
repository of hospitalized African American patients that receive GPS guided therapy in which we can: 1)
determine highly utilized medications that would benefit from discovery studies, and 2) new translational efforts
in drugs in which novel SNPs that predict response are found in the future. In this way, we create an on-going
pipeline from discovery to translation and ultimately to implementation.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9934886
- **Project number:** 5U54MD010723-05
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** DAVID O MELTZER
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $626,351
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9934886

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9934886, African American Cardiovascular pharmacogenetic CONsorTium (ACCOuNT): discovery and translation (5U54MD010723-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9934886. Licensed CC0.

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