Drug Product Information

Over the last few years, Lexicomp has become the fastest growing provider of drug information to EMR/EHR vendors.  It is not only due to the excellent and personalized customer service that each customer receives, but also because Lexicomp strives to stay ahead on cutting edge technology and industry updates.   Over the last twelve months, Lexi-Data customers have taken advantage of several more enhancements to the product that:

• Reduce development time
• Add unique functionality
• Answer common EMR vendor concerns

Lexi-Data clients can alleviate alert fatigue

Alert fatigue is now one of the primary concerns of clinicians concerning EMR adoption, so Lexi-Data has created a way to easily filter alerts such as Black Box Warnings.  This results in more relevant, actionable, and valuable alerts.  This is exactly what EMR users are looking for.

Expanded web services drastically cuts development time

Lexicomp now provides web service delivery for those clients who just  want instant access over the Internet.  This cuts development and maintenance costs drastically, and allows clients to get to the market faster with additional functionality.

Targeted patient education materials for improved care

Lexi-Data now offers both adult and pediatric patient education leaflets in 19 languages.  These patient education leaflets are used daily by thousands of hospitals in the United States and can now be integrated into EMRs. 

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.

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.

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."

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."

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

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.

EMRs, EHRs, and ePrescribers are poised to add controlled substances to their electronic prescribing products -- but there's a hitch. Where can these vendors get the federal and state controlled substance schedules in a ready-to-use format?

Healthcare providers that handle prescriptions in multiple states have long known that the interlocking and overlapping requirements of state and federal controlled substance schedules can be bewildering. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) supplies a federal code that must be followed -- except where it is superceded by more stringent state codes. The result is that every state has different rules for prescribing narcotics and other controlled substances. Even worse, there's no single place to get information from all the states. If you want to keep up, you have to follow each one individually.

Luckily, Lexicomp can now provide both federal and state CSA codes in ready-to-use data formats that make adhering to laws much easier. The information is collected by Lexicomp's in-house staff of content experts and updated regularly. It's available as part of their integrated transactional data product, Lexi-Data, which means the data can power electronic prescribing logic from behind the scenes. Contact Lexicomp today for more information by following the links on this page!

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.

It is estimated that approximately 7,000 deaths occur each year in the United States due to medication errors. Studies conclude that e-prescribing is the solution to improved patient safety and reducing sky-rocketing medication costs. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.