Lexi-Data, Lexicomp's clinical decision support database is perfect for EMR vendors looking to meet a number of Meaningful Use requirements:
- Allows for specific clinical decision support functions, including drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checking
- Has consumer-facing patient education materials
- Is compliant with the RxNorm
- Include comprehensives reference information for the US including drug generic name, drug brand name, drug classifications, and eventually clinical dosage guidelines for calculating pediatric and adult doses
Lexicomp will be exhibiting at
HIMSS 2012 in Las Vegas, from February 20 - 24. Stop by for a visit at
Booth #5134 and learn more about the choices you have in drug information databases!
First, if you are developing a new EMR or application that requires inclusion of drug and medicine information, don't delay the process of securing a drug data vendor. With the new certication rules you are better off finding a vendor who is easy to work with, flexible and supportive. There are only a few drug data providers in the market, so it shouldn't be difficult to idenitfy them.
Secondly,
pediatric and neonatal dose ranging checking is becoming more of a must everyday. The web-based EHR company,
Practice Fusion, released a study earlier this year where it has been shown that EHR's are having a real impact on the decrease of infant mortality. This is great news in general and hats off to those EHR's that have elected to focus some of their development efforts on dose range checking.
As my colleague Matt Bennardo posted several months ago, "There are drug information vendors like Lexicomp that understand there is a vast world of difference between adults and children. Lexicomp's durg information is trusted by dozens of EMR vendors to guide clincians in prescribing, fulfilling and admnistering drugs to patients of all types --- including children."
If you are the beginning of process of developing a new EMR or looking to modify a current EMR, contact Lexicomp for some suggestions.
I am reposting comments I made several months ago. Why? Because it is very important to build an EMR with the best pediatric dosing information possible. The implication are clear. So, if you are in the midst of building a new EMR or just want to include a link from your EHR over to Lexicomp Online's Pediatric Dose Range Checking, I would suggest reading this.
It might seem like an easy question, but the answer is neither obvious nor unimportant. Both pediatric and neonatal dose range calculators are receiving more focus and attention. This is serious business, with serious consequences. Last week, Matt Bennardo wrote a blog posting where he cited a study by Practice Fusion, where it has been shown that EHR's are having a real impact on the decrease in infant mortality. This is great news for those EHR's that have elected to use better dose range checking calculators.
As I said in a post last week. "All pediatric dosage calculators are not created equally. As Matt goes on to say, "But luckily there are drug information vendors like Lexicomp that understand there is a vast world of difference between adults and children -- and often between older children and neonates. Lexicomp's drug information is trusted by dozens of EHR vendors to guide clinicians in prescribing, fulfilling, and administering drugs to patients of all types -- including children."
Lexicomp provides both "machine readable" transactional information (geared towards specific populations) for use in clinical decision support, as well as "human readable" reference materials for clinicians and patients. Even Lexicomp's patient education leaflets are written with either adult or pediatric patients in mind.
If you are developing an EMR or looking to improve an EHR or HIS system, I would suggest reaching out to Lexicomp for some suggestions. Lexicomp is known for its pediatric and neonatal drug information.
EMR vendors are not the only ones rapidly deploying clinical decision support systems to healthcare providers. Dental professionals are demanding that their practice management systems overcome massive development hurdles in order to comply with Meaningful Use standards.
There is a buzz in the dental technology community about Meaningful Use and incorporating more clinical decision support into the practice management system workflow. If you are searching for the best dental specific drug database to integrate into your dental EMR, turn to Lexicomp. There are very few suppliers of drug data within the dental market and even fewer still that are easy to work with. And if you are looking for an easy-to-use, out-of-the-box ePrescribing tool, trust our partner DoseSpot to deliver the solution. What do all of these companies have in common? They are easy to work with and provide you with the ability to get to the market fast!
Don't wait to the end of your development process to worry about: dose range checking, pediatric dosing, drug calculators, medicine interactions, dosage precautions, clinical guidelines, drug interaction software, duplicate therapy, drug classifications, generic drug names, drug nomenclature and more. These are critical paths for a dental EMR build. But it's not just about the information. It's about who you select as your partner and who has seamless API's which makes your development easier.
You owe it to your product and your customer to make the right choice.
Having a sick child can be a challenging and stressful time for any parent. A sick child also presents challenges for health care professionals as well as health information systems as it relates to prescribing medications. For a number of medications, pediatric dosage calculations are based on weight. Having a weight available in the community pharmacy setting is often challenging, however this is only the first step in being able to validate the correct dosage range. The second piece necessary to accurately check the validity of a pediatric prescription is having the correct information in your pharmacy system.
All too often, community pharmacy systems are not equipped with the necessary drug reference database to accurately evaluate a pediatric dose. For over 15 years, pediatric practitioners have been using Lexicomp's Pediatric Dosage Handbook and more recently, our electronic versions to prescribe and validate pediatric dosing. Now, this information has been transformed into a data set that can be integrated into pharmacy systems to allow your HIS to help you validate these critical doses. For more information about this product, visit http://www.lexi.com/businesses/ehr-vendors/.
If you are in pediatrics you are most likely familiar with the
Pediatric Dosage Handbook or
Pediatric & Neonatal Lexi-Drugs by Lexicomp. If you are not familiar with these resources I would highly recommend looking into these as many consider this information as the "bible" in safe pediatric dosing. Now that Meaningful Use has been introduced and the larger overall concept of clinical decsion support and integration, Lexicomp has taken this key content and made it available as a database accessed through APIs.
Now that more and more clinical decision support resources are being integrated into the workflow, Lexicomp has invested the resources to be able to offer healthcare applications like EMR, CPOE, etc., a comprehensive database that can easily be implemented for
pediatric speicific dosing and drug information, all right within the workflow. The content from Lexicomp's pediatric information can be implemented to build pediatric dosing checks as well as a pediatric dosage calculator to ensure that pediatric and neonatal patients receive safe, accurate dosing and treatment.
So wether you are a clinician or you are an EMR developer this information is a must have and important. Clinicians can benefit from Lexicomp's products the best way they see fit. Subscribing to our print or subscription based references or by having your EMR implement this Lexi-Data, this information cna be implemented right within your workflow.
More information on Integrating Lexicomp content into your workflow.
It might seem like an easy question, but the answer is neither obvious nor unimportant. Both pediatric and neonatal dose range calculators are receiving more focus and attention. This is serious business, with serious consequences. Last week, Matt Bennardo wrote a blog posting where he cited a study by Practice Fusion, where it has been shown that EHR's are having a real impact on the decrease in infant mortality. This is great news for those EHR's that have elected to use better dose range checking calculators.
As I said in a post last week. "All pediatric dosage calculators are not created equally. As Matt goes on to say, "But luckily there are drug information vendors like Lexicomp that understand there is a vast world of difference between adults and children -- and often between older children and neonates. Lexicomp's drug information is trusted by dozens of EHR vendors to guide clinicians in prescribing, fulfilling, and administering drugs to patients of all types -- including children."
Lexicomp provides both "machine readable" transactional information (geared towards specific populations) for use in clinical decision support, as well as "human readable" reference materials for clinicians and patients. Even Lexicomp's patient education leaflets are written with either adult or pediatric patients in mind.
If you are developing an EMR or looking to improve an EHR or HIS system, I would suggest reaching out to Lexicomp for some suggestions. Lexicomp is known for its pediatric and neonatal drug information.
Matt Bennardo had a great blog post last week where he wrote about the positive benefits of Meaningful Use on the development of EHRs and their impact on patient safety. He cites a study by Practice Fusion, where it has been shown that EHR's are having a real impact on the decrease in infant mortality. This is great news!
As Matt wrote, "Of course, to get these kinds of results, the information in the EHR needs to be accurate, timely, complete, actionable, and specific to the patient. With respect to pediatric and neonatal patients, that last point is especially important. An EHR that is only set up to perform dose range checking and interaction checking on adults won't be nearly as helpful when it comes to children."
All pediatric dosage calculators are not created equally. As Matt goes on to say, "But luckily there are drug information vendors like Lexicomp that understand there is a vast world of difference between adults and children -- and often between older children and neonates. Lexicomp's drug information is trusted by dozens of EHR vendors to guide clinicians in prescribing, fulfilling, and administering drugs to patients of all types -- including children.
Lexicomp provides both "machine readable" transactional information (geared towards specific populations) for use in clinical decision support, as well as "human readable" reference materials for clinicians and patients. Even Lexicomp's patient education leaflets are written with either adult or pediatric patients in mind.
If you are developing an EMR or looking to improve an EHR or HIS system, I would suggest reaching out to Lexicomp for some suggestions.
What do all of these have in common? Well for one thing, they are being driven in part by the demands of Meaningful Use requirements.
Here is just one example of Meaningful Use effect. Some of the demands are actually in place, and many others roll out over the next few years. EPrescribing in Florida looks like it might be taking an interesting turn as free application provided by the State may be going away, or so I have heard. This recently
posted ePrecribing blog described it in greater detail. And
a second blog.
As Meaningful Use requirements have dictated more relevant application of medication and drug data within EMR and EHR systems, the awareness of the nuances of these databases has also gone up. Recognition of the following terms is becoming more commonplace: Drug Reference Database; Dosage Range, Dosing in Pediatrics, Drug Interaction List,
Pediatric Dosage Calculator, Medicine Interaction. Clinical Decision Support Systems, Drug Content, and more.
As we attempt to incorporate more technology into medicine through the use of HIS, it brings to light the need for more than just a simple medication list. Health information systems are now being asked to help improve patient outcomes by performing other clinical decision support functions that go beyond a pick list. If we truly want to improve patient outcomes, it is important that our HIS provide relevant clinical guidance especially in a critical population such as pediatrics. Calculating pediatric doses is not always an easy task and having data in your HIS that can perform pediatric dosing calculations can be an invaluable tool in improving patient outcomes.
Lexicomp has a long standing reputation of providing this valuable and often difficult dosing information in the Pediatric Dosage Handbook. For over 20 years, we have been providing neonatal and pediatric dosing based on available literature and current clinical practice. More recently this information has been transformed into Lexi-Data's Pediatric Dosage Range Checking application. This content can be used within an HIS to provide guidance to your clinicians on appropriate dosing for this difficult and vulnerable population.
Matt Bennardo had a great
post last week regarding a study which showed the connection between EHRs and their improvement on pediatric care.
With several pediatric calculators on the market, how can one tell which to trust? A reference book can be helpful, yet many other considerations should be taken into account. It is vital to screen drug interactions with the full medicine list of the child along with their maturation. Having all this information readily available with an EMR can vastly work to reduce errors. When dealing with pediatrics, especially neonatal patients, attention to detail and continually updated, unbiased information is best. Lexicomp has all the options to achieve improved safety for patients of any age.
These options include:
- Pediatric Dosage Calculations in both transactional information for the clinical decision support systems and reference materials designed for clinicians.
- Pediatric focused patient education materials
What is holding you back from easy implementation? Perhaps you have a laundry list of items or perhaps money is constraint. Either way, look to Lexicomp for an intuitive database design that will help you seamlessly integrate complex drug databases into your system.
Other items that Lexicomp can help check off your list:
- Allows for specific clinical decision support functions, including drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checking
- Has consumer-facing patient education materials
- Is compliant with the RxNorm
- Include comprehensive reference information for the US including drug generic name, drug brand name, drug classifications, and eventually clinical dosage guidelines for calculating pediatric and adult doses
So look around the market, investigate, but remember that Lexicomp can serve all your needs!
Here are some of the qualifications that drug reference and drug interaction data must meet to qualify:
-- Must allow for specific clinical decision support functions, including drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checking
-- Must have consumer-facing patient education materials
-- Must be compliant with the RxNorm (a medication list maintained by the National Library of Medicine)
-- Must include comprehensive reference information for the US including drug generic name, drug brand name, drug classifications, and eventually clinical dosage guidelines for calculating pediatric and adult doses
When looking for drug information that meets all these requirement, pick one that will partner with you to meet your needs, whether they be speed to market, budgetary, or customer service.
This is what one of Lexicomp's satisfied customers has to say:
"We spent months researching and investigating the competition. Lexi-Comp business partnering and licensing division gave us the tools we needed to test it in our application to assure our clinicians that we had a reliable and trustworthy source. Their responsiveness to inquiries and requests sold us on a solid partnership we could count on."
- Coletta Dorado, CEO of IntuitivEMR
Several institutions, as well as drug data vendors, have constructed dose range checking content. In many cases, the institutions have learned that this can be a difficult process to complete and maintain. Reliance on a drug reference book such as the Pediatric Dosage Handbook to create these data technically is outside of the terms of use, and leaves open the issue of maintenance and timely modification as new information appears in the literature.
Without a valid model to identify, acquire, evaluate, and publish. Dosage precautions which are not actively supported by this type of surveillance typically fall out of date rather rapidly. Pediatric dose calculations can be limited, and therapeutic dosages which are supported in the literature may be identified as outside the range. This type of over-alerting is a source of frustration. Lexicomp has worked with its partners to transform the content of the Handbook into a database with associated APIs to execute dose range checking for pediatrics. In addition, these data are actively modified in conjunction with the normal process of maintaining this publication. In this way, the user can integrate dose range checking simply, with the assurance that the data are continuously updated and expanded.
The HITECH Act (commonly known as "Meaningful Use") has some specific requirements for drug reference and drug interaction data which can be used to qualify for incentive money. There aren't many vendors that can provide such specific information, so it's important to shop around to every available seller. Lexicomp and Multum are two vendors that offer qualifying data.
Here are some of the qualifications that drug reference and drug interaction data must meet:
-- Must allow for specific clinical decision support functions, including drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checking
-- Must have consumer-facing patient education materials
-- Must be compliant with the RxNorm (a medication list maintained by the National Library of Medicine)
-- Must include comprehensive reference information for the US including drug generic name, drug brand name, drug classifications, and eventually clinical dosage guidelines for calculating pediatric and adult doses
Both Lexicomp and Multum meet all of these criteria and more. Shopping around to different vendors may give you options that better fit your budget, development environment, support needs, or timeline. But always be sure to ask vendors if their information has been used yet by any EMR, EHR, or HIS vendors who have certified for Meaningful Use under the HITECH Act.
As a result of a request made by someone who particularly liked one of my posts last month, I am reposting. This year at HIMSS should be pretty interesting, and maybe a bit chaotic and a little unsettling. Meaningful Use was getting bandied about last year, but this year it is real, tangible and around the corner.
Whether you are an EMR vendor, EHR manager, ePrescribing vendor, or someone else in this dynamic and quickly changing business segment, you will want to see what it is going on. One of the areas that is a bit overlooked and undervalued until you have signed a long-term agreement (and it is too late to reconsider) is in the area of drug database information for clinical decision support.
The data is important, but equally important is the relationship with your drug information provider. Once you make your selection, you will be "stuck" with them for a very long time. Make the right choice. Obviously, other areas for evaluation have to do with the level and sophistication of APIs that the vendor has or are under development.
Pediatric dosage calculations, drug interaction software, drug generic name, drug brand name, drug classifications, drug and medicine interactions, medicine lists, clinical guidelines, clinical information systems, and more, are all critical areas for consideration.
At HIMSS 2011 there will also be live demonstrations showing how our drug databases can be implemented and customized to meet the various specific needs of EMR vendors. Stop by and see us if you are a current customer or are looking to implement drug information or clinical decision support into your application, booth #6653.
Lexicomp will be attending HIMSS 2011 in Orlando. This will be a great opportunity for any EMR, Hospital, or Consumer Health Site to visit booth #6653 and learn about our solutions for implementing decision support for drug interactions, duplicate therapy, drug allergies, and dose range checking, as well as drug databases, and patient education information for consumers.
A report posted January 21, 2011 by
iHealthBeat states, "Nearly 90% of U.S. hospitals will need to install or upgrade their electronic health record systems during the next three years to comply with the federal government's meaningful use requirements." Hospitals have the option to purchase a "ready made" from a vendor or to make their own. No matter what the case, be sure your drug information complies with meaningful use. While you are at, you might as well go above the requirements.
There are several components to look for drug information:dose range checking, pediatric dosing, drug calculators, medicine interactions, dosage precautions, clinical guidelines, drug interaction software, duplicate therapy, drug classifications, generic drug names, drug nomenclature and more. These are critical paths for an EMR build. But it's not just about the information. It's about who you select as your partner and who have seamless APIs which makes your drop easier.
Meeting with these vendors in person may help in picking the right partner. The HIMSS 2011 show in Orlando, Florida February 21 - 23 will showcase many of these partners, Lexicomp included!
This year at HIMSS should be pretty interesting, and maybe a bit chaotic and a little unsettling. Meaningful Use was getting bandied about last year, but this year it is real, tangible and around the corner.
Whether you are an EMR vendor, EHR manager, ePrescribing vendor, or someone else in this dynamic and quickly changing business segment, you will want to see what it is going on. One of the areas that is a bit overlooked and undervalued until you have signed a long-term agreement (and it is too late to reconsider) is in the area of drug database information for clinical decision support.
The data is important, but equally important is the relationship with your drug information provider. Once you make your selection, you will be "stuck" with them for a very long time. Make the right choice. Obviously, other areas for evaluation have to do with the level and sophistication of APIs that the vendor has or are under development.
Pediatric dosage calculations, drug interaction software, drug generic name, drug brand name, drug classifications, drug and medicine interactions, medicine lists, clinical guidelines, clinical information systems, and more, are all critical areas for consideration.
At HIMSS 2011 there will also be live demonstrations showing how our drug databases can be implemented and customized to meet the various specific needs of EMR vendors. Stop by and see us if you are a current customer or are looking to implement drug information or clinical decision support into your application, booth #6653.
Lexicomp will be attending HIMSS 2011 in Orlando. This will be a great opportunity for any EMR, Hospital, or Consumer Health Site to visit booth #6653 and learn about our solutions for implementing decision support for drug interactions, duplicate therapy, drug allergies, and dose range checking, as well as drug databases, and patient education information for consumers.
Drug dosing has been the focus of recent news reports related to FDA actions. Manufacturers of acetaminophen containing products have been instructed to limit the amount of acetaminophen in their products. This is evidence that even in the case of drug classifications which are familiar and include over-the-counter products, dosage ranges should be carefully evaluated. When drug exposure includes more than one product, this can be a particularly difficult scenario in pediatric dosage calculations. This recent news demonstrates that regulatory agencies will attempt to address these issues as they relateto product strengths. The full exposure to a drug though all possible sources should be checked prior to dose administration.
There are a lot of moving parts you will encounter as part of your certification process. One area that should not create additional complications is with drug databases for clinical decision-making support. This includes making sure you have the best drug-drug and drug-allergy calculators available. There are only a few vendors in the marketplace in a position to deliver the high quality drug information your customer needs.
But it's not just about the drug information. It's about the interface, service, assistance and support. Anyone can just send over drug information files. But it's another story to interact with the vendor...............and feel guilt. If you are looking to work with a drug data company (including: medicine lists, dosage administration, drug classifications, dosing calculators, pediatric calculators, clinical guidelines, medicine interactions, and more), Lexicomp likely will provide the best service, price and long term confidence. If you are looking to work with a good ePrescribing company, I would suggest DoseSpot. They have a terrific product and are great to work with.
Don't forget to check out these companies at HIMSS conference in Orlando in February.
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