As more clinicians begin using EMRs and EHRs in more settings, alert fatigue is becoming a bigger and bigger issue. Many clinicians expect their EMR system to be smarter, and not to bombard them with alerts that they consider unimportant or irrelevant.
But an EMR's alert filtering is only as good as the data behind the system. And most data is woefully inadequate for this job because it's one-dimensional. Often, the only filter that EMR developers can apply is based on an alert's "severity". But severity is not the whole story.
Why severity alone isn't enough
Some drug interactions may have severe results, but be very uncommon. Others may be common but very mild. Filtering on severity alone is likely to leave clinicians with a frustrating partial view of the real risks of prescribing a medication to their patients.
Luckily, Lexicomp has three-dimensional filters:
-
Severity -- How severe is this interaction?
-
Risk -- How likely is this interaction?
-
Reliability -- How much evidence is there for this interaction in literature?
Taking all these dimensions together means that your EMR can finally start to be smart in the way that clinicians expect it to be. These qualities are what cinicians think about when they assess whether an interaction or adverse reaction is one they want to look at more closely.
Contact Lexicomp today to learn more about the different dimensions of filtering that are available on interactions, and how they can help you alleviate alert fatigue for your users.
Drug and interactions data is important to EMR and EHR systems -- it's what powers the clinical decision support functionality that makes it possible to write ePrescriptions, to qualify for Meaningful Use, or to save a patient's life by identifying an interaction or allergy that otherwise would have gone unnoticed.
But too often, EMR vendors don't spend much time looking at the quality of that data. It's a mistake to write off quality altogether -- but luckily there's an easy way to know if data sources are trusted by clinicians. Who uses it, and how? If doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and other clinicians are spending their own money to purchase that same data in reference resources, you can be pretty certain that they consider its quality to be good.
For thirty years, Lexicomp has been selling direct to clinicians
You know that Lexicomp's drug and interactions data is clinically relevant because that's who it was designed for, and that's who has been buying it for thirty years. Lexicomp would never have survived as a company if clinicians weren't willing to stake their professional careers on that data every day.
Now with Lexi-Data, your EMR or EHR can make use of that same information that clinicians have been relying on for years. When they check an interaction in your EMR, they'll see the same answer they get when they check Lexicomp's reference resources. Your EMR could be as trusted a source of information as Lexicomp's references already are.
That's powerful. It means that clinicians will turn to your EMR for answers, and will be more willing to use it. With more usage, your customers will more easily qualify for Meaningful Use -- collecting incentives and avoiding penalties. That makes it easier for you to show the value of the system.
Over the life of the Lexi-Data product Lexicomp has made many key enhancements to help improve the ability of end users, mainly EMRs, to effectively manage drug interactions. To add to these, recently Lexicomp has released new enhancements surrounding the drug interaction content that allow end users through their EMR to have more information that will allow for better decisions when managing a drug interaction.
New content includes information from the leading interaction reference Lexi-Interact. Now, via Lexi-Data, content such as Risk Rating, Severity Rating, Onset and Reliability can all be referenced within the Lexi-Data content set. These new ratings will allow clinicians to see a complete overview of the interaction in question and offer key decision criteria. Also, included in this new enhancement, is the ability to view a drug interaction on a drug to drug level vs just reviewing the interaction on the class level. This could help clinicians better understand what exceptions within a class are appropriate options to avoid or better manage the interaction. This content could also help in cutting down on alert fatigue and helping increase the viability of alerts surrounding interactions. Other pieces of the enhancement offer a summary of the interaction as well as patient management recommendations.
Learn more on these enhancements to help better manage drug interactions or to request more information on Lexi-Data.
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.
Surescripts' e-prescribing services allow physicians to electronically send prescriptions from their offices to more than 54,000 retail pharmacies and six of the largest mail order pharmacies. In addition, Surescripts provides physicians with electronic access to their patients' prescription benefit and medication history.
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, and more.
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?
-
Top quality data
-
Elegant data structure with easy to use API's
-
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.
Does your EHR meet the certification requirements established by ONC? Lexicomp can help by providing your system key clinical decision support data required for certification.
-
Drug Interaction Data - we'll provide your system data that enables clinicians to screen for drug interactions, including drug-allergy, drug-drug and drug-food
-
RxNorm Mapping - we promote interoperability through mapping to industry standard RxNorm
-
Drug Reference Data - integrate drug reference information, such as drug images and black box warnings, into your system
-
Patient Education - we provide patient education information that allows users to generate patient-specific handouts for medications (available in 19 languages), and conditions and procedures (available in English and Spanish)
Contact Lexicomp today for more information!
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."
How to reduce "alert fatigue' and at the same provide the system framework to improve outcomes? That is the question that most system developers have been struggling with for over a decade. It is difficult enough for a large hospital wide EMR to achieve this goal. How much more difficult for ambulatory EMRs?
In the last few years, Lexicomp has become a major provider of drug information used by ambulatory and smaller hospital EMRs. As part of Lexi's entry into this market, they have now included a unique aspect of their drug-drug interaction rating system, which defnitely could help in improving "alert fatigue." My colleage, Mark Dachille recently said the following about "alert fatigue:"
"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."
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.
Apparently there has been some interest in several of my recent blog posts, so I am re-posting two of them. I like the second one :
The first one:
"In a few short years, Lexicomp has gone from being the provider of choice for drug reference information to the vendor of choice for EMR development companies looking for a supplier of drug data to include in their product. Lexi-Data provides all of the standard drug information that one would expect from the other suppliers, but it also provides the best pediatric dosing information available. 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."
The second: (enjoy)
"We live in a turbulent and fast changing world. What was good yesterday is not necessarily what is best for today. Where is Netscape? How about Alta Vista? Lotus is certainly history but how many of you remember Multiplan and before that VisiCalc? The changes occur quickly -- not like the phasing out of a buggy whip.
The same could be said about more and more EMR developers who are turning to Lexi-Data for their drug information. Lexi-Data just hit the scene a little more than two years ago. And how quickly it has grown and capturing a major part of new EMR development in need of drug information. Why so?
Is it about drug information quality? Is it about ease of integrating the APIs? How about quality of the Pediatric Drug Information and drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions? Or is about the top quality customer support during the development and integration phase, where Lexicomp treats it customers like true partners?"
Needless to say, as you can imagine, it is about all of the above. If you haven't acted yet, it is about time
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.
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?
-
Top quality data
-
Elegant data structure with easy to use API's
-
The best customer and development support you can find anywhere. (It makes you 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 API's! 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.
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.
Looking to differentiate your EHR? Why not consider providing calculators that have been requested by thousands of physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and dentists for years through Lexicomp's online and mobile solutions. With Lexi-Data, you have the ability to choose the ones that are relevant to your users and we will provide you with the logic needed to embed these useful tools into your system.
But that's not all! Lexi-Data can also help you meet several aspects of clinical decision support required for certification. Here's just a couple of the ways:
-
Drug Interaction Data - we'll provide your system data that enables clinicians to screen for drug interactions, including drug-allergy, drug-drug and drug-food
-
RxNorm Mapping - we promote interoperability through mapping to industry standard RxNorm
-
Drug Reference Data - integrate drug reference information, such as drug images and black box warnings, into your system
For the full list, click here.
Why I am repeating a headline from last week and some similar content? Because it seems to resonate with those folks who are making the critical decisions on their EMR development and their need to include the best drug information, along with the best vendor support.
As 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.
Some of my colleagues have asked me to re-post my blog from last week. So I will do so.
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.
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."
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!
I have had several comments asking for me to repeat several of my recent blog posts, so here they are:
The first one:
"In a few short years, Lexicomp has gone from being the provider of choice for
drug reference information to the vendor of choice for EMR development companies looking for a supplier of drug data to include in their product. Lexi-Data provides all of the standard drug information that one would expect from the other suppliers, but it also provides the best pediatric dosing information available. 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."
The second: (enjoy)
"We live in a turbulent and fast changing world. What was good yesterday is not necessarily what is best for today. Where is Netscape? How about Alta Vista? Lotus is certainly history but how many of you remember Multiplan and before that VisiCalc? The changes occur quickly -- not like the phasing out of a buggy whip.
The same could be said about more and more EMR developers who are turning to Lexi-Data for their drug information. Lexi-Data just hit the scene a little more than two years ago. And how quickly it has grown and capturing a major part of new EMR development in need of drug information. Why so?
Is it about drug information quality? Is it about ease of integrating the APIs? How about quality of the
Pediatric Drug Information and drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions? Or is about the top quality customer support during the development and integration phase, where Lexicomp treats it customers like true partners?"
Needless to say, as you can imagine, it is about all of the above. If you haven't acted yet, it is about time.
Lexicomp will be attending HIMSS 2012 in Las Vegas. This will be a great opportunity for any EMR, Hospital, or Consumer Health Site to visit booth #5134 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.
At
HIMSS 2012 there will 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.
Powered by Compendium