Page 2 - Drug Interaction Data

Why Lexi-Data is now the drug data of choice for EMR's and their developers

Thursday, January 5, 2012 by David Wilkof

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.

Why EMRs and Practice Management Systems are turning to Lexi-Data for drug information

Tuesday, December 27, 2011 by David Wilkof

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.

Are you developing EMRs and practice management systems where speed to market is critical?

Monday, December 19, 2011 by David Wilkof

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.

Electronic Prescribing

Monday, December 12, 2011 by Ryan Smith

ePrescribing is offered as a way to prevent medication errors that arise due to difficulties in reading or understanding handwritten prescriptions. ePrescribing could also reduce adverse drug events (ADEs) by making information such as drug interactions and contraindications available to prescribers at the time they are preparing a prescription.

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.

EMR's now have a web services option to access drug data

Thursday, December 1, 2011 by David Wilkof

Lexicomp has now released the second phase of a comprehensive web services solution to EMR developers to access drug information. For those EMR and Practice Management systems that do not want to store drug information in their product, they now have an option. In the second phase, Lexicomp has released web services to include a proprietary Black Box warning decision tool to reduce alert overload. Phase II also include dose range checking (DRC) and 12 new searching tools.

For EMR developers that have need for any of the following drug nformation or tools in their product, Pediatric Dose Range Checking (Lexicomp is the leader in this area); Patient Education Materials; Drug Interaction Software; RxNorm Mapping; Medicine Lists, Generic Drugs; Dose Information; ePrescribing, and more--- they should call Lexicomp.

Development slowed by your drug information database provider? 3 tips!

Sunday, November 27, 2011 by Matt Bennardo

EMR and EHR vendors are discovering that the responsiveness of their data providers can have a big impact on their ability to get certification or get to market. This is especially true in drug interaction databases, where the quality of the data can affect crucial product goals like Meaningful Use certification or SureScripts eprescribing certification.

Even beyond certification, a data provider can affect how quickly you can develop new features, respond to customer requests, or even whether you can develop new and necessary functionality at all. In many ways, a drug information vendor is one of a health IT developer's most important partners.

What if the partnership doesn't work out?
Real problems can arise if this partner is unresponsive or doesn't provide the expected level of customer service and new feature development. An EHR or EMR can literally be left treading water in situations such as these. What to do? Here are three tips.

1. "Bolt on" additional functionality: For some functionality, it's possible to lease an already-certified third-party solution that will help you meet short-term needs if your own development is stalled. The classic case for this electronic prescribing -- many EMR developers use pre-existing third-party eprescribing modules to get them to market faster while developing their own. One provider of such modules is DoseSpot.

2. Use web services to easily integrate multiple sources: Sometimes a single source just doesn't have everything you need, but maintaining multiple in-house databases can be costly and time-consuming. For specific bits of information you want to add -- for instance, patient education documents in foreign languages -- it may be easiest to access a second vendor using web services. This puts the responsibility for maintaining the data on the vendor, and leaves you with a much smaller development and maintenance task. One drug data provider, Lexicomp, now supplies much core functionality through web services, including all major Meaningful Use Stage 1 items.

3. Cut the anchor as soon as you can: Sometimes all you can do is look for another provider. The two items above can help you in some circumstances, but for core functionality you may need to cut your losses. The earlier you can identify a bad relationship, the better. One customer of Lexicomp came to us after unsuccessfully trying to work with another vendor's dataset. After a short while with the other database, they knew it wasn't right, and so they were able to painlessly replace the data with Lexicomp's. In less than a month after that, their product was live.

The moral of the story is that your drug vendor relationships are crucial to your success. If they don't feel right, then stop and look for alternatives. A slight delay upfront is better than being trapped with a vendor who makes it more difficult for you to meet your customers' needs and innovate new features.

Lexicomp is now the preferred drug reference database for EMR and EHR vendors

Thursday, November 24, 2011 by Matt Bennardo

Lexicomp's drug interaction database has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years. Now used by hundreds of EMR, EHR, HIS and other healthcare vendors, it is the information behind medication reference and clinical decision support for tens of thousands of physicians.

What makes Lexicomp the preferred choice?

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

More and more healthcare information vendors are discovering that Lexicomp can save them development time, making the road to certification and market faster and smoother. Find out today if Lexicomp can do the same for you!

Are you looking for a complete collection of patient focused drug information for your web site, patient portal, or kiosk?

Wednesday, November 23, 2011 by Ryan Smith

Lexicomp provides companies with with the ncessary tools to integrate drug-drug interaction data, drug-food interaction checking information, drug–allergy checking information, therapeutic duplication checking information, drug images, and patient education leaflets which are available in 19 different languages.

If you are interested in increasing your web site traffic with the industry trusted brand of Lexicomp, please contact us today to learn more. We can help you increase the patients awareness related to the education of drug information questions or concerns that patients commonly have.

If you are being asked to develop a site (I’m speaking to the developers out there), getting up and running is typically a top priority. Lexicomp understand that speed of implementation is critical. We have a number of delivery methods of content available including a downloadable version from a FTP site which would be stored within your database environment or we also offer Web Services which is the ability to make real-time calls over the web. Developers also have access to our team of engineers who are dedicated to making your integration build seamless.

Selecting the right drug interaction database in developing an new EHR

Monday, November 21, 2011 by David Wilkof

As Matt Bennardo pointed out, when EMR and EHR companies are under development and they are looking to include drug and medicine information, they must given proper consideration to the quality of the drug information, the ease of installation, and the level of customer service provided by the drug data provider. In order to meet the Meaningful Use standards, the EMR and EHR developers now care more about drug and medicine information than ever before. They now care about drug interactions, drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions, adverse drug events, patient education pamphlets, dose information, pediatric dosing inforamation, drug brand names and drug generic names.

Hundreds of Lexi-Data customers are now integrating Lexicomp reference and transaction drug information into their systems under development. As Matt had said:

"Comprehensive data covers all decision support Meaningful Use requirements:

Compatible with required standards like RxNorm
Supports drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checking
All data necessary for ePrescribing and CPOE
Additional functionality like dose range checking

Fastest and easiest integration gets you to market faster:

Easy-to-use APIs and web services -- you choose which you want
Superior one-on-one customer service
Most intuitive data structure and fastest implementation

New features set you apart from the competition:

Black Box Warning filters to alleviate clinician alert fatigue
Patient education available in 19 languages

Click the links on this page to find out more about Lexi-Data now!"

Benefits of a Drug Interaction Databse for EHR Vendors and Patient Portals

Thursday, October 27, 2011 by Matt Bennardo

Lexicomp is the seller of Lexi-Data, a transactional drug interaction database for EHR vendors, EMR vendors, HIS systems, ePrescribers, PMS systems, consumer websites, patient portals, and more. Hundreds of Lexi-Data customers are integrating Lexicomp's referential and clinical decision support information into their own systems and products.

Comprehensive data covers all decision support Meaningful Use requirements:

Compatible with required standards like RxNorm
Supports drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checking
All data necessary for ePrescribing and CPOE
Additional functionality like dose range checking

Fastest and easiest integration gets you to market faster:

Easy-to-use APIs and web services -- you choose which you want
Superior one-on-one customer service
Most intuitive data structure and fastest implementation

New features set you apart from the competition:

Black Box Warning filters to alleviate clinician alert fatigue
Patient education available in 19 languages

Click the links on this page to find out more about Lexi-Data now!

Using Black Box Warnings to prevent adverse drug events.

Monday, October 24, 2011 by Chris Madjerich

Anyone who has been exposed to electronic order entry has experienced the dreaded "alert fatigue". If the goal of electronic prescribing is to improve patient safety and outcomes, alerting clinicians to potential drug interactions or other dosing precautions is necessary. In our current information age, there is a plethora of information available regarding medication safety and potential safety issues with the use of medications. In an attempt to help clinicians sift through all this information, the FDA has established the use of a "Black Box Warning" to call attention to the most important safety issues. A recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine reviewed several drug information providers comparing their ability to identify black box warnings and confirmed that Lexicomp is the leader in this area.

In an effort to incorporate this valuable information into the clinician's busy workflow, Lexcomp has recently enhanced their Lexi-Data product to include Black Box Warnings. The Black Box Warnings table allows system vendors to present critical medication safety information from these warnings within a health information system. The data is also structured in a way that will allow the system vendors to filter which alerts are presented, allowing for instance a prescriber to see warning specific to the ordering process and a pharmacist seeing warnings more relevant to the dispensing process.

Improving patient safety requires the use of "intelligent alerting", Lexi-Data has given system vendors the ability to present critical safety information in a meaningful way.

Drug Interaction Checking Critical for EMRs

Friday, October 21, 2011 by Darik Warnke

Medication errors and adverse drug events are serious issues in healthcare. Apprx 770,000 injuries or deaths related occur each year. For this reason and to comply with the certification and meaningful use requirements, every EMR should look at partnering with and providing their customers top rated drug interaction, duplicate therapy, allergy and dose range checking information integrated into their EMR. Lexicomp and the Lexi-Data product can offer this solution.

This information and its quality, customizability, and delivery format can really set your EMR apart from the competition. In 2010 the EMR market grew by almost 13.5% while competition in this area is also growing at a higher than predicted rate. More and more physicians are now starting to look at implementation of an EMR although the rate of adoption has been slowed by the complicated maze of meaningful use. None the less, it is critical that EMRs differentiate and help physicians understand how to navigate through this maze. Drug Data Vendors that are able to offer what others may not can help these EMR companies win more deals. Drug interactions that are cusomizable, dose range checking for specific populations (adult, pediatric, geriatric) duplicate therapy checking and an overall solid patient education offering are areas that can be easily implemeted from Lexi-Data. Lexicomp's expertise and customer service can also help get you up and running fast. The database is easy to work with, available in mutliple formats and even has a web-service set can help start up and established EMRs build the structure needed to help physicians.

For more information visit www.lexi.com/businesses/ehr-vendors/

Drug Information for Meaningful Use

Friday, October 21, 2011 by Ryan Smith

Among the Eligible Professionals who are going for federal incentive payments for Meaningful Use, podiatrists rank high among early adopters. iWatch news recently published an article (http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/10/12/6941/podiatrists-have-their-foot-door), describing this observation.

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. As an integrated component of your EHR, our transactional drug data and reference information support the following Stage 1 meaningful use and certification criteria from ONC's Final Rule.

Lexi-Data is the foundation of Lexicomp's clinical decision support architecture. This product provides clinical decision 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, Drug Classifications, dose range checking (adult and pediatric) and more.

Drug interaction databases for pharmaceutical policy and outcomes research

Thursday, October 20, 2011 by Matt Bennardo

For years, Multum Lexicon was the source for researchers to get drug reference and drug interaction data. But where can researchers now get medication lists, pharmaceutical monographs, drug-drug interactions, drug-allery interactions, and more?

Today, there is an enhanced and updated product built on the foundation of Multum Lexicon. It's Lexicomp's Lexi-Data transactional database. Lexi-Data provides drug names (brand name, generic name, and common abbreviations), therapeutic categories, drug classifications, indications, and standard coding such as NDC, J-Codes, and ICD-9. The data in Lexi-Data has been utilized by many universities and research institutions, including research on pharmaceutical policy and outcomes, aging, and more.

Multum is a registered trademark of Cerner Corp.

Drug Interaction Databases for EMR and EHR developers - don't wait!

Thursday, October 13, 2011 by David Wilkof

Many EMR and EHR developers wait too long to begin for looking for a supplier of drug data and drug interaction databases. In some respects it seems like a simple chore. There are only a few drug data providers. But the sooner these developers start, the better. Why so?

First, there is a big difference in data structure among the few providers. Lexicomp happens to have a very simple and logical structure, which does solve some headaches if you come in late into the game. But even if you start in a timely way, simpler and more logical is better.

Second, how comprehensive is the data provided? Consider the following needs: drug-drug interaction, drug-allergy interaction, pediatric dosing information, therapeutic dosing information, brand vs generic, Black-Box Warnings, Patient Education Leaflets in multiple languages, drug classifications, and more. There are many things to consider and work on before submitting your development to the certification process. You obviously don't want any surprises.

In the last 24 months more and more EMR developers have selected Lexicomp as their drug information provider. There are many reasons for that. We encourage you to call early in the process.

Populating patient portals with drug and clinical data

Wednesday, October 12, 2011 by Matt Bennardo

Patients are becoming more involved in their own healthcare, and are increasingly making use of patient portals and consumer-facing websites to do research, follow their progress, and even answer questions they might have previously posed to their physician. At the very least, they are using these sites to be more informed during visits to their care providers so they can get more value from those encounters.

All of this creates an opportunity for innovative developers to provide accurate, reliable, easy-to-understand information to patients via the web. One source for medication and clinical information that can be easily integrated into such sites is Lexicomp.

Lexicomp is a leading provider of drug reference, clinical reference, and patient education leaflets and materials to clinicians. Over a thousand hospitals use Lexicomp's information every day during patient encounters. The information available includes medication lists, drug monographs, drug interaction information (including interactions with common food and natural products), drug allergy information, patient education documents, dose adminstration, warnings, and more.

And Lexicomp's information can be easily integrated into your site in a variety of ways. You can choose to have an installed local database, or to use web services to pull information from Lexicomp's servers as needed. Contact Lexicomp today to find out how to populate your patient portal or consumer website with the information your users are looking for.

Evaluating drug interaction databases in EHR development

Friday, October 7, 2011 by Matt Bennardo

When developing an EHR system, when is the right time to evaluate a drug interaction database? Because there are only a handful of vendors in the market, it makes sense to evaluate their respective offerings several times. Certainly, before you make the final decision to go with any particular vendor, you should talk once more to the other data providers to ensure nothing has changed.

A lot can change in a few months
One vendor that has added a lot of enhancements to their medication and clinical information is Lexicomp. Evaluating their product today versus a year ago would show many differences in capabilities.

Some of the new enhancements include:

New web services calls that allow for implementation of Meaningful Use Stage 1 requirements without an installed database
New Black Box Warnings information that helps alleviate alert fatigue
Expanded patient education leaflets in multiple languages

In an industry like this where things can change quickly but in which product development can sometimes span years, it's important to check in with possible vendors more than once! If you haven't talked to Lexicomp recently, click the links on this page to set up a conversation with them now.

EMR certification requires drug interaction data that is easy to work with

Wednesday, September 28, 2011 by David Wilkof

Many EMR vendors are scrambling to complete their products quickly so they can pass through the various certifying bodies (their choice about who they go to). Often overlooked early in the process is the importance of selecting the best drug information provider. Making the right selection early will save headaches later on.

It is not just a matter of drug data quality, but even more importantly about the structure of the data files and how easy those files are to work with. It's not just about the actual drug reference database, but about the ease of using various APIs and working seamlessly with the data provider. Lexicomp is quickly developing a stellar reputation in this market segment, as is demonstrated by our growing share of the market. There are many things that need to be considered by the EMR vendor in their search for the best provider to work with. Some of these include the quality of pediatric dosage database, dose administation, patient education, Black Box Warning decision tree, and more. If you are at a decision point in the area of drug information, make sure you give Lexicomp a call.

Where can university and private researchers get drug information?

Monday, September 26, 2011 by Matt Bennardo

For many years, the primary provider of drug reference and drug interaction information to researchers was Multum's Lexicon product. Today, there is also another product that is built on the foundation of Lexicon. That new product is Lexicomp's Lexi-Data Basic database.

In an earlier post, my colleague Ryan Smith explained how Lexi-Data Basic is now serving the needs of researchers:

"Lexi-Data Basic provides drug information that includes drug names (brand name, generic name, and common abbreviations), therapeutic categories, drug classifications, indications, and standard coding such as NDC, J-Cods, and ICD-9. The Lexi-Data Basic product is powered by the widely known and trusted Multum Lexicon product which has been utilized by hundreds of universities and institutions in the past. Multum is a registered trademark of Cerner Corp."

For more information on Lexi-Data Basic, click the links to fill out the form on this page.

What are you doing about Electronic prescribing (eRx)?

Sunday, September 25, 2011 by Ryan Smith

It is estimated that each year some 530,000 adverse drug events take place among Medicare beneficiaries alone because of drugs negatively interacting with other drugs the patient is already taking, or insufficient information about the patient’s medical history. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) reported last year that more than 1.5 million Americans are injured annually by drug errors in hospitals, nursing homes and doctor’s offices. These negative drug events may require costly interventions in order to stabilize the patient, including hospitalization.

Electronic prescribing (eRx) has been recognized as an important step in moving health care from a paper-based legacy to a new electronic platform. The use of ePrescribing has been incentivized by the federal government, specifically via the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Lexi-Data is the foundation of Lexi-Comp's clinical decision support architecture. 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, Drug Classifications, dose range checking (adult and pediatric) and more.

We are committed to ensuring patient safety.