Drug Databases

Instead of writing out prescriptions on a piece of paper, doctors will perform this function directly into their electronic medical record.  The prescription travels from their computer to the pharmacy’s computer. Electronic prescriptions are sent electronically through a private, secure, and closed network – the Surescripts network.

By now it is not a surprise, more and more EMR and EHR  business owners and general managers are turning to Lexicomp to solve their drug information needs.   In a few short years,  Lexicomp has been the fastest growing provider of drug information to the EMR market.   This didn't happen by accident.  It came as a result of  Lexicomp's three-legged trifecta approach to providing drug information to EMR and EHR developers -- of any size!  

What are three aspects?

1. Top quality data
2. Elegant data structure with easy to use API's
3. The best customer and development support you can find anywhere.  (It makes your work so much easier)

In addition to supplying the expected information such as drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions, adverse drug events, RxNorm mapping, generic drug lists, drug nomenclature, and more.  Lexi-Data also offers an incredibly easy to use data structure and APIs!  Although, perhaps more importantly,  Lexicomp is unparalleled in its customer service and providing assistance in the development process. If you are developing a new EMR and need a drug information supplier, make sure that Lexi is on your list.

And if you are thinking about building your own ePrescribing module,  I call your attention to a posting my colleague Matt Bennardo published last week:

As EHR vendors find their products growing and signing up more users, many start to think about moving from using a third-party eprescribing solution to building their own. The reasons for making this switch are many:

• As your user base grows, eprescribing fees grow too
• Bring features in-house makes it easier to respond to specific customer needs
• A third-party solution is a risk, as you never can be sure what will happen in the market

One of the first steps in building your own eprescriber is to find a data provider who can supply you with medication lists and other information that Surescripts requires to certify your tool. Lexicomp is one such provider. They've been focused on providing drug data direct to clinicians for over thirty years, but now they can also supply you with database-ready information to power an eprescriber.

Lexicomp's customers have used their data to certify EMRs and EHRs with ONC testing bodies like Drummond, CCHIT, and Infogard. Their customers have also certified eprescribers using Lexicomp data with Surescripts. And best of all, Lexicomp's flexible pricing and easy implementation allows firms of all sizes to get up and running smoothly and quickly.

Recently someone asked, "What would you say are the most common words that people  associate with Lexi-Data and the value and service that the product delivers?".   I would say it is a long list,  but the following short list comes to mind:  "drug interaction database , drug nomenclature,  drug reference pediatric , drug classifications list, pediatric dosage database, adverse drug events, drug interaction database for EHRs."

The journey of selecting of a clinical decision support database can be somewhat of an overwhelming task at first glance. How much time and money will it take to implement when the project list is already a mile long? What are the necessary resources that will be involved? Luckily, there are vendors out there like Lexicomp that make it pretty painless when implementing a drug database.  

In speaking with a number of EMR developers and in reviewing many products which integrate clinical decision support utilizing commercial drug database, a few things have become apparent.  One of the the biggest challenges is to integrating clinical decision support for functions like drug-drug, drug-allergy, drug condition interaction checking  in a meaningful way that is not disruptive to a clinicians workflow. Many times just throwing alerts at clinicians can lead to alert fatigue and eventually alerts will be ignored.  In my experience, having a clinical resource to help with development will pay big dividends in the end.

Another aspect that can prove beneficial is what types of alerts you choose to show users.  Lexicomp has recently rolled out another aspect of drug-drug interaction within it's Lexi-Data product called risk rating.  By utilizing risk rating along with the more commonly known drug interaction severity, more impactful and actionable alerts can be provided to clinicians which will ultimately improve patient care and reduce alert fatigue for clinicians. 

Whether you are building a complete EMR, ePrescribing application, or mobile medical app utilizing drug interaction software, proper integration of the data is the key.  Taking the time and utilizing the right product that is easy to integrate and provides meaningful alerts will ultimately lead to product you can be proud of.

As more and more healthcare professionals are adopting EMR technology to meet Meaningful Use requirements, we are receiving more and more interest from dentists about adding clincial decision support technology into their dental practice management system.  They are quickly realizing that Lexicomp is the preferred vendor of choice to work with, because we provide the very best dental specific drug database to integrate into their EMRs as well as personalized customer support during development.   Another important piece to consider in a dental EMR is an ePrescribing tool.  Lexicomp has a close partnership with DoseSpot to deliver this solution.  By selecting DoseSpot for ePrescribing, our clients are able to get to the market faster and reduce their headaches in developing the tool on their own.

Lexi-Data provides the drug information for  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. 

To learn more about Lexicomp's dental solutions, please visit our website at http://www.lexi.com/individuals/dentistry/

If you are interested in learning more about our integration capabilities, we'd love to talk with you.  Please contact us at 1-877-819-6883.

Are you heavily involved in making the critical decisions for EMR development and the need to include the best drug information, along with the best vendor support?

Several weeks ago I wrote:

Are you the owner or manager of an ambulatory EMR company?   What keeps you up late at night?   Worried about getting your product to the market as quickly as possible and keeping your costs under control?  Worried about certification?   No doubt you have some thoughts about reducing medical errors by including the best drug information and internal built-in logic.   More and more EMR and EHR  business owners and general managers are turning to Lexicomp to solve their drug information needs.

In a few short years,  Lexicomp has been the fastest growing provider of drug information to the EMR market.  As I said in a previous post:

In addition to supplying the expected information such as drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions, adverse drug events, RxNorm mapping, generic drug lists, drug nomenclature, and more.  Lexi-Data offers an incredibly easy to use data structure and API's and most importantly,  Lexicomp is unparalleled in its customer service and providing assistance in the development process. If you are developing a new EMR and need a drug information supplier, make sure that Lexi is on your list.

And if you are thinking about building your own ePrescribing module,  I call your attention to a posting my colleague Matt Bennardo published last week:

As EHR vendors find their products growing and signing up more users, many start to think about moving from using a third-party eprescribing solution to building their own. The reasons for making this switch are many:

• As your user base grows, eprescribing fees grow too
• Bring features in-house makes it easier to respond to specific customer needs
• A third-party solution is a risk, as you never can be sure what will happen in the market

One of the first steps in building your own eprescriber is to find a data provider who can supply you with medication lists and other information that Surescripts requires to certify your tool. Lexicomp is one such provider. They've been focused on providing drug data direct to clinicians for over thirty years, but now they can also supply you with database-ready information to power an eprescriber.

Lexicomp's customers have used their data to certify EMRs and EHRs with ONC testing bodies like Drummond, CCHIT, and Infogard. Their customers have also certified eprescribers using Lexicomp data with Surescripts. And best of all, Lexicomp's flexible pricing and easy implementation allows firms of all sizes to get up and running smoothly and quickly.

Contact Lexicomp using the links on this page today for more information.

As EHR vendors find their products growing and signing up more users, many start to think about moving from using a third-party eprescribing solution to building their own. The reasons for making this switch are many:

• As your user base grows, eprescribing fees grow too
• Bring features in-house makes it easier to respond to specific customer needs
• A third-party solution is a risk, as you never can be sure what will happen in the market

One of the first steps in building your own eprescriber is to find a data provider who can supply you with medication lists and other information that Surescripts requires to certify your tool. Lexicomp is one such provider. They've been focused on providing drug data direct to clinicians for over thirty years, but now they can also supply you with database-ready information to power an eprescriber.

Lexicomp's customers have used their data to certify EMRs and EHRs with ONC testing bodies like Drummond, CCHIT, and Infogard. Their customers have also certified eprescribers using Lexicomp data with Surescripts. And best of all, Lexicomp's flexible pricing and easy implementation allows firms of all sizes to get up and running smoothly and quickly.

Contact Lexicomp using the links on this page today for more information.

Electronic prescribing (e-Prescribing) is a key component to improving patient safety and reducing medication errors, because it provides real-time clinical decision support to physicians at the time of order entry.  It is estimated that approximately 7,000 deaths occur each year in the United States from preventable medication errors. That is why physician adoption of e-Prescribing has been incentivized by the federal government. However, one of the biggest challenges surrounding physician’s adoption of e-Prescribing is the ability for them to electronically transmit prescriptions for controlled substances. 

Prior to June 2010, all controlled substance prescriptions were required to be on paper, so instead of maintaining one process for paper-based controlled substances and another that is electronically based for noncontrolled substances; physicians were choosing to stick with a paper-based prescription process.  In an effort to remove this headache and extra work that was required by physcians there was a new ruling made by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to encourage physicians adoption. In June 2010, the DEA revised the Code of Federal Regulations to allow the electronic transmission of schedule II-V controlled substances to pharmacies.  Now physicians can migrate to an electronic system and not worry about maintaining a separate paper-based system. 

Lexi-Data is the foundation of Lexicomp's comprehensive clinical decision support database and it contains federal CSA codes as well as a list of state level overrides that e-Prescribing systems need to make this happen. 

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 preferred choice of drug information databases!

Healthcare providers have always relied on Lexicomp’s clinical information to provide them with answers to questions about drug interactions. It is important that providers have a trusted resource to find information about the potential, risk, and mechanism of drug and natural product interactions, and methods to manage these risks in their patient’s regimen. The key to Lexicomp’s drug interaction content comes from a strong knowledge base of understanding the pharmacokinetics of drug interactions and a scientific approach to predicting interactions.   Lexicomp’s comprehensive suite of clinical information concerning drug-drug and drug-food interactions is one of the key reasons why EMR vendors use Lexi-Data for clinical decision support to meet Meaningful Use certification requirements.

Lexi-Data’s drug-drug interaction API provides developers many opportunities to customize the display of drug interaction information, offers a severity rating for each interaction, an “advice” header, and a textual description of the significance, nature, and management of the interaction. Lexi-Data also helps manage alert fatigue with the ability to customize interaction alerts for different views. 

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 preferred choice of drug information databases!

• Better quality information with faster updates and fewer mistakes

• A more clinically relevant focus that their end users valued

• Easier implementation and more powerful functionality

• Superior customer service

• Unique content not available elsewhere, like Lexicomp’s industry-leading Pediatric Dose Range Checking

• 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

Are you developing EMRs and practice management systems where speed to market is critical?   One of the modules of such systems is the inclusion of drug information.    Since this is neither the expertise of your developers nor your content people,  it is important to identify the preferred drug information provider early in the process.   Four criteria are critical in making this decision.   First, quality of information.  Second,  flexibility of design and APIs.   Third, simplicity of data structure.   Fourth, and very important, customer support during the development period and after release.    More and more EMRs are now using Lexicomp drug information as part of their offering.  And there is a reason for that.

Lexi-Data is the foundation of Lexicomp's clinical decision support architecture is quickly becoming the standard for when companies need an up-to-date comprehensive drug database.  This product provides patient specific alerts and referential content to support sound treatment decisions in areas such as drug interaction checking (drug-drug and drug-food), drug allergy checking, therapeutic duplication checking, RxNorm Mappings, supports Surescripts Certification,  Drug Classifications, dose range checking (adult and pediatric), Patient Education, Pediatric and neonatal drug interactions and more. 

1. Meaningful Use support: Including drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checking
2. Superior customer service: Every customer receives personal service, no matter the size
3. Advanced filtering options: A unique system of complex filters allows users to target Black Boxed Warnings to particular users and circumstances
4. Trusted content and name: Thousands of physicians, pharmacists, nurses, dentists, and other clinicians buy information direct from Lexicomp because they trust it
5. Full support for eprescribing: Customers have used Leicomp's clinical decision support to create their own e-prescribing modules for EMRs and EHRs

• Easier implementation when compared to other data sources
• Superior customer service for all customers, regardless of size
• Full support of Meaningful Use Stage 1 clinical decision support requirements
• New innovative features like patient education in multiple languages
• Flexible delivery, including robust APIs and web services