I visited a tag sale this weekend and saw a lamp that intrigued me. Though it was an expensive brand, it was neither a beautiful lamp nor a particulalry useful lamp based on its shape. I couldn't stop thinking about this lamp but, in the end, I decided that it was more expensive than I was willing to pay and I'd come back on the next day to see if it was still there, knowing that tag sales typically mark down their items on the last day.
I visited the sale again on Sunday and imagine my surprise when I saw that the lamp had been marked up and was more expensive than when I had initially seen it! The sales staff were honest with me and told me that there had been so much interest in the lamp and so many people who said they were going to come back on Sunday, that they decided they'd raise the price.
As I said, this was neither an aesthetically pleasing lamp, nor was it particulalry useful, based on its awkward size and shape. Yet here they were, charging a premium for something that, from a utlititarian standpoint, did not warrant it; simply because they could.
Is your drug information provider charging a premium for sub-par (or at best, adequate) information? Does what you're getting really warrant what you're paying? Just because you're paying a premium for drug information for your EHR doesn't mean you're getting all that you need.
Lexicomp is not only a reasonably priced drug information provider, but can help by providing a medication list that includes both generic, brand name, and over-the-counter drugs. By providing drug interaction screening including drug-drug/drug-food/drug-herbal, dose range checking, and duplicate therapy screening, Lexicomp can help you as an EHR vendor, ensure your clients meet a number of Meaningful Use requirements.
Additionally, the Lexi-Data product is mapped to RXNORM and contains patient education information in up to 19 languages, which is another check box on the Meaningful Use requirements list.
So if you're looking for a drug information provider that can supply premium level content for a reasonable price,
check out Lexicomp. You won't be disappointed!
Several weeks ago I pointed out that an EMR or EHR vendor (or inside hospital HIS development team) overlooks some critical factors in making choices about drug data suppliers. No doubt the quality of the drug data is important, but that is just the beginning. These developers should be equally, if not even more, concerned about what I would call "softer" factors. such as:
1) Structure of the data (how easy is it to map to and identify?)
2) Availability and simplicity of the APIs offered by the vendor
3) How responsive is the drug information provider during the development period (this
will provide a major clue into how the long term relationship will work).
These might sound like simple things, but in the end, they are the most important things. Do your due diligence. Several years ago there were only a couple of drug data suppliers available. Now with the addition of the very well established drug information provider, Lexicomp, these development companies have a choice. Lexicomp has provided clinical decision support for three decades. It provides drug reference solutions to nearly 1500 hospitals in the United States, along with all divisions of the U.S. Military. The
Vancouver study released last year, rated Lexicomp Online as the most preferred drug database.
If you are looking for drug information or medicine data, Lexicomp can help by providing a medication list that includes both generic, brand name, and over-the-counter drugs. By providing drug interaction screening including drug-drug, dose range checking, and duplicate therapy screening, Lexicomp can help EHR vendors meet a number of Meaningful Use requirements. The Lexi-Data product delivered by Lexicomp is also mapped to RXNORM and contains patient education which is another check box on the Meaningful Use requirements list.
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
For too long, there were few choices of drug information providers for EMR, EHR and HIS vendors. It's not only a question of the quality of the drug and medicine information provided, but even more so it is an issue of the:
1) Structure of the data (how easy is it to map to and identify?)
2) Availability and simplicity of the APIs offered by the vendor
3) How responsive is the drug information provider during the development period (this
will provide a major clue into how the long term relationship will work).
These might sound like simple things, but in the end, they are the most important things. Do your due diligence. Check around.
Lexicomp provides drug reference solutions to more than 1500 hospitals in the United States, along with all divisions of the U.S. Military. The Vancouver study released last year, rated Lexicomp Online as the most preferred drug database.
If you are looking for drug information or medicine data, Lexicomp can help by providing a medication list that includes both generic, brand name, and over-the-counter drugs. By providing drug interaction screening including drug-drug, dose range checking, and duplicate therapy screening, Lexicomp can help EHR vendors meet a number of Meaningful Use requirements. The Lexi-Data product delivered by Lexicomp is also mapped to RXNORM and contains patient education which is another check box on the Meaningful Use requirements list.
According to a recent
report from KLAS, "35% of all respondents are replacing their EHR systems and 43% of physician practices with more than 100 doctors are doing so." What does that mean for EHR or EMR vendors? More sales, but only if you are ready. What is keeping you from these customers? If its drug data, then consider partnering with a trusted leader in drug databases for clinical decision support systems.
Consider Lexicomp
Lexicomp can help by providing a medication list that includes both generic, brand name, and over-the-counter drugs. By providing drug interaction screening including drug-drug, dose range checking, and duplicate therapy screening, Lexicomp can help EHR vendors meet a number of Meaningful Use requirements. The Lexi-Data product delivered by Lexicomp is also mapped to RXNORM and contains patient education which is another check box on the Meaningful Use requirements list.
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.
I call attention to my colleague's posting (Mark Dachille) several weeks ago, just prior to HIMSS, when he said.
"Lexicomp can help by providing a medication list that includes both generic, brand name, and over-the-counter drugs. By providing drug interaction screening including drug-drug, drug-allergy, drug-condition, dose range checking, and duplicate therapy screening, Lexicomp can help EHR vendors meet a number of Meaningful use requirements. The Lexi-Data product delivered by Lexicomp is also mapped to RXNORM and contains patient education which is another check box on the Meaningful Use requirements list.
Although there are a number of vendors providing drug nomenclatures, not many can provide all of these features, and could lead to issues down the road with achieving Meaningful Use certification"
Based on this posting, there were many people who visited the Lexicomp looking for solutions to their drug data needs.
According to iHealthBeat, "a coalition of 25 interested consumer groups said that ONC should resist pressure from health care providers to scale back requirements (
Health Data Management, 2/28).
The consumer groups and unions expressed support for several issues, including:
- Transitioning all "optional" criteria in Stage 1 to "required" criteria in Stage 2;
- Advancing key criteria that have an impact on quality and safety, such as electronic prescribing and medication reconciliation;
- Improving collection of advance directives (CMIO, 2/28); and
- Providing patients with online access to their health data, as well as secure messaging capabilities."
It is unclear how much will be required if government dollars dry up. But regardless, medical institutions and vendors need to keep pushing forward. It will be too difficult to turn the spigot on and off. This theme kept coming through at HIMSS.
Specifically in the areas of EHRs, EMRs, HIS', ePrescribing and more, they need to keep moving forward in their efforts to include drug-drug interaction, drug-allergy interaction, therapeutic dosages, medicine interactions, dosage administration, dosage precautions, medication brand names and generic names, pediatric dosage calculations, and eprescribing. Regardless of what the specific requirements will look like 12 months from now, there is no doubt that these changes will improve patient outcomes. Whether you go to Lexicomp or to Multum, find a vendor that will be your solution partner to help you through minefields. APIs are rarely just plug and play. Having the right partner will make a big difference.
Back in December, I wrote about the possibility of
XML becoming the standard for transmitting medical information between different systems and entities. As time goes on, XML only seems to be gaining more support as a means to achieving interoperability. In fact, even the third version of HL7 is based around the extensible features of XML -- no matter what the final standard is, it seems clear that it will stress flexibility as a key component of interoperability.
Lexicomp has long been offering drug databases for reference and clinical decisions support in XML. As I said back in December:
"Lexicomp offers drug lists in XML (with information about branded drugs, generic drugs, routes, dosage, active ingredients, interactions, allergies, and more captured in conceptual tags). But they also provide industry leading drug and drug interaction information data through database files (with attendant API support for advanced clinical decision support functions) and hosted web services (for the simplest, headache-free implementation)."
As more questions arise around Meaningful Use and its future, there is increasing skepticism from hospitals as to whether or not funding will be there after they make the huge time investment to wander down this road. One of the areas that many hospitals are embarking on is providing information to their patients via their hospital website.
Many hospitals are creating detailed hospital websites as a value add to their patients. Some hospitals are utilizing existing interfaces or "out of the box" solutions and some are building these on their own. Through these sites patients can access their records and most recent visits (Stage 2 Meaningful Use criteria if we ever get there), run drug interaction checks on their current list of medications, and access patient education materials on medications they may be taking or conditions they may have been diagnosed with. As patients become more involved with their healthcare decisions hospitals need to provide them with the information they need most. Drug information, drug interaction analysis, medication leaflets in their native language, and possibly education on drug brand name and drug generic name.
Lexicomp not only provides the drug information needed by clinicians when treating patients but also provides patient focused drug information that is written for the patient. Hospitals can provide this information through their site. Medication leaflets in up to 19 languages, patient level drug interaction analysis, lists of medications by brand and generic, and possibly information on natural products. All this information can provide patients that extra needed value from your hospital to make them feel better about their experience and Lexicomp can provide the consumer information needed to build that site.
With HIMSS 11 rapidly approaching, a number of vendors will be arriving in Orlando. With the number of booths at this years event, it will be hard to see everything there is to offer during the three days the exhibit hall is open. To cut down on time spent reviewing vendors, look for specific product features that will address specific Meaningful Use criteria.
Lexicomp can help by providing a medication list that includes both generic, brand name, and over-the-counter drugs. By providing drug interaction screening including drug-drug, drug-allergy, drug-condition, dose range checking, and duplicate therapy screening, Lexicomp can help EHR vendors meet a number of Meaningful use requirements. The Lexi-Data product delivered by Lexicomp is also mapped to RXNORM and contains patient education which is another check box on the Meaningful Use requirements list.
Although there are a number of vendors providing drug nomenclatures, not many can provide all of these features, and could lead to issues down the road with achieving Meaningful Use certification. Use your time wisely while at HIMSS and visit Lexicomp at booth #6653.
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.
My colleague, Matt Bennardo, recently wrote a blog about discovering alternatives to the traditional providers of drug information data for EMRs and EHRs. He suggested that HIMSS this year will offer some choices to customers who are desperately looking beyond their few limited choices of the past.
Lexicomp showed last year at HIMSS and started getting the attention of many EMR companies. Throughout the course of 2010 this translated into many new customers and strong partnership relationships.
As Matt wrote:
"More EMRs are calling Lexi-Data their “preferred choice” every month
Many of our customers have told us that they’ve made the switch because they found Lexi-Data delivered:
- 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
Lexicomp will be exhibiting at HIMSS 2011 in Orlando, Florida, from February 21 - 23. Stop by for a visit at Booth #6653 and learn more about the choices you have in drug information databases!"
So if you are looking for dosage administration, drug brand and generic names, therapeutic dosage information, medicine lists,or pediatric dosing information for EMRs, Emergency Room EMRs, EHRs and HIS systems, stop by the booth to learn more.
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.
Last Monday I posted that there was opportunity for a piece of the growing EHR marketplace with 4,000 companies jumping to start the registration process. Another sign of growth has been reported today by
HealthData Management. According to a recent posting, "U.S. market for inpatient and outpatient electronic health records software was nearly $1.98 billion in 2009 and will steadily increase to $3.8 billion in 2015" as found in a new report by the research firm IDC Health Insights, Framingham, Mass.
These numbers can be further broken down in Ambulatory and Inpatient EHR electronic records software spending. Ambulatory EHR Spending by all types of providers totaled $633.5 million in 2009, rising in 2015 to $1.41 billion. Inpatient EHR Spending was $1.34 billion in 2009, rising in 2015 to about $2.4 billion.
With all this money being spent and more to come, it's not too late to get your software on the certification track with trusted drug data. Don't wait until 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 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 job easier.
You owe it to your product and your customer to make the right choice.
There is a lot going right about regarding Meaningful Use and EMR developers seeking certification. More and more certifying bodies are in the marketplace making it easier to get certified. There are very few suppliers of drug data and even fewer still that are easy to work with. Lexicomp and Cerner/Multum are just two. And if you are looking for an easy-to-use, out-of-the-box ePrescribing tool, I would take a look at DoseSpot. What do all of these companies have in common? They are easy to work with.
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 an EMR build. But it's not just about the information. It's about who you select as your partner and who have seamless API's which makes your drop easier.
You owe it to your product and your customer to make the right choice.
With 400+ EHR vendors in the market today, there are big questions about how interoperability will work in the coming years. One proposed solution that keeps coming up is
more reliance on XML in EHR systems -- especially where transmission of information between systems is concerned.
There is little consensus so far on the "correct" way to build EHR systems, so XML isn't a silver bullet for all applications. That's why Lexicomp continues to support a variety of transactional data products for use in building EHRs, consumer websites, patient portals, analytical databases and more.
Lexicomp offers drug lists in XML (with information about branded drugs, generic drugs, routes, dosage, active ingredients, interactions, allergies, and more captured in conceptual tags). But they also provide industry leading drug and drug interaction information data through database files (with attendant API support for advanced clinical decision support functions) and hosted web services (for the simplest, headache-free implementation).
No two applications are exactly the same, but Lexicomp has lists and databases to fit almost every need!
The medication generic name is only one way to specify a therapeutic dosage. If a compound is available in multiple dosage forms a particular generic name may have a number of specific dosage ranges. For example, an extended release product which is dosed once daily may have a very different dosage range than its immediate-release counterpart. At the very least the acceptable frequency of administration is very different. Differences in bioavailability between products as well as salt forms may need to be addressed through separate dosage ranges. The drug brand name unfortunately is also not a simple relationship to the generic drug. For example, a brand name can be applied to an ophthalmic product and a systemic tablet. Additional differentiators (such as route) would need to be included in any review prior to dose administration.
There are only a few real source providers of drug information that is integrated into various hospital and medical systems. More and more you are also starting to see this information show up on websites. Two leading providers are Lexi-Comp and Multum/Cerner.
The are some key things to look for if you have a need for drug information provider. First, make sure your vendor is really a partner and works well with you and is responsive to your requests. It might not sound like much, but makes all the difference in the world. Second, make sure they have effective APIs for you to grab the drug data. You might think about developing some of this yourself in-house, but the reality is that some of the requirements become complicated, and without the APIs it could get quite messy. For example, developing the algorithms for drug-drug or drug-allergy interactions. Third, make sure they have a solid reputation, but are not enormous in size. Otherwise you will get lost in the shuffle.
So if you need drug information such as: pediatric dosing charts, clinical guidelines, drug nomenclature, dose administration, drug interactions, generic and brand drug names, medicine lists, drug databases etc, make sure you work with the right partner.
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