I am reposting comments I made several months ago. Why? Because it is very important to build an EMR with the best pediatric dosing information possible. The implication are clear. So, if you are in the midst of building a new EMR or just want to include a link from your EHR over to Lexicomp Online's Pediatric Dose Range Checking, I would suggest reading this.
It might seem like an easy question, but the answer is neither obvious nor unimportant. Both pediatric and neonatal dose range calculators are receiving more focus and attention. This is serious business, with serious consequences. Last week, Matt Bennardo wrote a blog posting where he cited a study by Practice Fusion, where it has been shown that EHR's are having a real impact on the decrease in infant mortality. This is great news for those EHR's that have elected to use better dose range checking calculators.
As I said in a post last week. "All pediatric dosage calculators are not created equally. As Matt goes on to say, "But luckily there are drug information vendors like Lexicomp that understand there is a vast world of difference between adults and children -- and often between older children and neonates. Lexicomp's drug information is trusted by dozens of EHR vendors to guide clinicians in prescribing, fulfilling, and administering drugs to patients of all types -- including children."
Lexicomp provides both "machine readable" transactional information (geared towards specific populations) for use in clinical decision support, as well as "human readable" reference materials for clinicians and patients. Even Lexicomp's patient education leaflets are written with either adult or pediatric patients in mind.
If you are developing an EMR or looking to improve an EHR or HIS system, I would suggest reaching out to Lexicomp for some suggestions. Lexicomp is known for its pediatric and neonatal drug information.
Great drug reference databases do not grow on trees. If you are in the midst of developing or redesigning an EMR or EHR, then you already know this. There are lots of key questions to keep in mind throughout the decision process:
- How much will they help in setting up the API's?
- Do they have a specific pediatric dose range checking product?
- Do they have patient education leaflets?
- Are they available in foreign languages?
Take a look at the marketplace and see who can meet all your needs--check out Lexicomp early in the searching process and you will be pleasantly surprised.
For over 30 years, Lexicomp has been a trusted provider of drug information. Lexicomp can provide consumer websites or patient portals with drug reference content specifically designed for the consumer audience. When integrated into your websites or patient portals, our drug information will provide patients the knowledge they need to better understand their medications.
We provide
patient education information that allows patients to generate their own handouts for medications (available in 19 languages) and drug images that will enable patients to easily identify their medications based on appearance. We also provide a drug interactions database that enables patients to view information on drug-allergy, drug-drug and drug-food interactions.
Lexicomp has a Business Development Unit deadicated to actively pursuing relationships with companies that provide complementary products and services. These relationships allow for system integration and licensing of our content and applications. We welcome the opportunity to demonstrate how our content can enhance your system and help improve patient safety.
What agony when a clinician’s workflow is interrupted because they need to confirm clinical information such as a correct dose, REMS Information (Information about FDA approved
Risk
Evaluation and
Mitigation
Strategies is included in Medication Guide, REMS Components and Prescribing and Access Restriction fields), or to find and print patient education materials.
Our easy-to-implement Integration solutions integrate seamlessly within any hospital’s EMR, CPOE, pharmacy system, or Web portal, connecting clinicians directly Lexicomp’s trusted drug information.
Lexicomp has integration established with many of the well know health care information system providers such as Cerner, Epic, Eclipsys, Meditech, Siemens and GE which provides one-click access to Lexicomp drug reference content such as drug monographs, patient education material which is available in 18 languages, pediatric dosing, and more.
We have a number of options available for the integration of Lexicomp Online content which include web based URLs (APIs), Web Services, or XML Datasets.
Web API Solution
- Our Web API solution empowers integration of all Lexicomp content. Consistent API programming calls save time and allow clinicians to launch from their internal applications into our clinical databases, utilizing whatever delivery platform they choose.
Web Services
- Our Web Services platform is written for compatibility with Microsoft® .NET™ and Java™ programs. XML data can be obtained via standardized calls and is then processed and returned in real-time. Your application will retrieve and parse the content into your display, making complete customization a reality.
XML Datasets- If live Internet calls are not preferred, XML datasets are available for download from an FTP site and incorporated directly into the database.
Healthcare is changing more and more everyday. There is a revolution for consumers to charge themselves with quality drug information to be better informed. Many people do so by researching the internet for patient portals, hospital websites, among others.
If you are looking for drug information that can be easily integrated into a patient portal, reference site, or another consumer health website, Lexicomp offers a broad range of information, including adverse drug events, potential allergies, interactions, and more -- both for pediatrics and adults. Furthermore, Lexicomp has some of the best and most comprehensive
patient education materials and pamphlets in the industry.
If you are interesting in are providing your customers with the best possible information, contact Lexicomp today.
Don't get discourgaged when looking for a drug data partner. Whether you have a laundry list of items or a small budget, Lexicomp has an intuitive database design that will help you seamlessly integrate complex drug reference databases into your system, allowing for easy implementation.
Other items that Lexicomp can help check off your list:
- Consumer-facing patient education materials in 19 languages
- Compliance with the RxNorm
- Dosage range checking, for both adult and pediatric
And many more!
Having a sick child can be a challenging and stressful time for any parent. A sick child also presents challenges for health care professionals as well as health information systems as it relates to prescribing medications. For a number of medications, pediatric dosage calculations are based on weight. Having a weight available in the community pharmacy setting is often challenging, however this is only the first step in being able to validate the correct dosage range. The second piece necessary to accurately check the validity of a pediatric prescription is having the correct information in your pharmacy system.
All too often, community pharmacy systems are not equipped with the necessary drug reference database to accurately evaluate a pediatric dose. For over 15 years, pediatric practitioners have been using Lexicomp's Pediatric Dosage Handbook and more recently, our electronic versions to prescribe and validate pediatric dosing. Now, this information has been transformed into a data set that can be integrated into pharmacy systems to allow your HIS to help you validate these critical doses. For more information about this product, visit http://www.lexi.com/businesses/ehr-vendors/.
If you are in pediatrics you are most likely familiar with the
Pediatric Dosage Handbook or
Pediatric & Neonatal Lexi-Drugs by Lexicomp. If you are not familiar with these resources I would highly recommend looking into these as many consider this information as the "bible" in safe pediatric dosing. Now that Meaningful Use has been introduced and the larger overall concept of clinical decsion support and integration, Lexicomp has taken this key content and made it available as a database accessed through APIs.
Now that more and more clinical decision support resources are being integrated into the workflow, Lexicomp has invested the resources to be able to offer healthcare applications like EMR, CPOE, etc., a comprehensive database that can easily be implemented for
pediatric speicific dosing and drug information, all right within the workflow. The content from Lexicomp's pediatric information can be implemented to build pediatric dosing checks as well as a pediatric dosage calculator to ensure that pediatric and neonatal patients receive safe, accurate dosing and treatment.
So wether you are a clinician or you are an EMR developer this information is a must have and important. Clinicians can benefit from Lexicomp's products the best way they see fit. Subscribing to our print or subscription based references or by having your EMR implement this Lexi-Data, this information cna be implemented right within your workflow.
More information on Integrating Lexicomp content into your workflow.
As it is part of Meaningful Use Stage 1, drug interaction checking is a critical piece. Not only is it required for reimbursement, but it is also important for improving patient safety. The difference between content and the quality and depth of the interaction information that you choose to integrate is important to understand. Many common drug references have an interaction checker where you can manually enter the medications a patient is taking and check for the significance of any interactions. For clinicians and patient safety this is important; however, when it resides outside of the workflow it can become time consuming.
A drug interaction list within your system can increase the likelihood that interactions will be checked as it puts these alerts directly into the workflow. Some of the most important aspects are not the common drug interactions, but the uncommon interactions that are not widely known. Keep in mind that users of your system will most likely want to customize or localize alerts to cut down on the number of insignificant alerts to reduce alert fatigue. Lexi-Data can help with this as the database is structured to allow for customization, turning off of certain alerts, and is an overall robust interaction checker covering common and less common drug interactions. Lexi-data also allows for drug interaction checking via a web service so there is less IT development time and maintenance. Contact Lexicomp to request more information on drug interaction lists.
Matt Bennardo had a great blog post last week where he wrote about the positive benefits of Meaningful Use on the development of EHRs and their impact on patient safety. He cites a study by Practice Fusion, where it has been shown that EHR's are having a real impact on the decrease in infant mortality. This is great news!
As Matt wrote, "Of course, to get these kinds of results, the information in the EHR needs to be accurate, timely, complete, actionable, and specific to the patient. With respect to pediatric and neonatal patients, that last point is especially important. An EHR that is only set up to perform dose range checking and interaction checking on adults won't be nearly as helpful when it comes to children."
All pediatric dosage calculators are not created equally. As Matt goes on to say, "But luckily there are drug information vendors like Lexicomp that understand there is a vast world of difference between adults and children -- and often between older children and neonates. Lexicomp's drug information is trusted by dozens of EHR vendors to guide clinicians in prescribing, fulfilling, and administering drugs to patients of all types -- including children.
Lexicomp provides both "machine readable" transactional information (geared towards specific populations) for use in clinical decision support, as well as "human readable" reference materials for clinicians and patients. Even Lexicomp's patient education leaflets are written with either adult or pediatric patients in mind.
If you are developing an EMR or looking to improve an EHR or HIS system, I would suggest reaching out to Lexicomp for some suggestions.
Back in January of this year, I wrote about the steady increase of
Electronic Health Records/Electronic Medical Records with the market projected to be at $3.8 billion in 2015. Now, according to this
report, "The U.S. EMR market is expected to grow from $2,177 million in 2009 to $6,054 million in 2015." This number is almost double!!
What I said back in January continues to apply today, as it is still not too late to get your software certified with trusted drug data. Don't wait until the end of your development process to worry about: medicine interactions, a drug reference database, pediatric dosing, dose ranges and more. But it's not just about the information. It's about who you select as your partner and who has seamless APIs to make your job easier.
So leave the
drug content to us and know you have made the right decision.
With the expected increase in the anesthesia information systems market as noted by Ryan Smith in his
meaningful use blog, it seems that many EHR, HIS, or EMR developers might do themsevles a favor by planning ahead and creating these systems now. With this being a new area for most companies, the question of where to purchase a drug database comes into play...who has the most trusted, reliable, and valuable data?
If you are in the market for an Anesthesiology & Critical Care database that provides detailed information on over 2,000 medications, then look no further than Lexicomp. Workflow is not interrupted when accessing the information through our Web API Solution, Web Services, or XML datasets. The integration delivers detailed drug and clinical reference information, including:
- anesthesia and critical care concerns, use, dosage, and monitoring parameters
- anesthetic drug interactions
This information comes together to support improved decisions at the point-of-care.
Reports are circulating that spending on healthcare IT is set to grow at an annual rate of 24% over the next several years. This is phenomenal growth, and it's tempting to think that rising tides are going to raise everybody's boat. But with the proliferation of EHR vendors we've seen in the past couple of years, that conventional wisdom isn't likely to hold true. How do you make sure that you're one of the rising boats, and not one of the swamped ones?
Development talent is the scarcest resource right nowAmong other things, this boom in healthcare IT means more competition for talented developers with healthcare-specific experience. And the influx of cash means that a few well-funded or well-positioned EHR vendors are going to reap early rewards -- and then will likely start poaching even more top talent from other vendors by offering bigger salaries and more benefits.
Your best move is to protect your IT resources by having them focus only on the most crucial parts of your system -- the parts that will differentiate you in the marketplace. Use a drug information provider with robust APIs, an intuitive data structure, and superior customer service to take the burden off your own development team so they can focus on more important tasks. One such vendor is Lexicomp, who has helped many customers get to market faster after less-than-positive experiences with other medication list vendors.
Another tactic is to forgo building your own eprescribing tool (which can take months to certify anyway), and instead use a standalone module like DoseSpot.
Meaningful Use still rules the day -- but look ahead to Stage 2 and beyondWith the government incentives now beginning to pay out, more and more practices and hospitals are pursuing Meaningful Use certification. To compete, your system will need to meet the Stage 1 requirements like drug-drug interaction checking, drug-allergy interaction checking, and distribution of patient education materials.
But it's not enough to simply check off the existing boxes. Every other EHR vendor is rushing to do the same. Instead, you need to provide value above and beyond the others. Again, a drug information vendor like Lexicomp can help you exceed Stage 1 requirements and put yourself where you need to be for Stage 2 and 3. They offer functionality like dosage range checking for both adults and pediatric patients, detailed patient education pamphlets in multiple languages, and links to some of the best drug and clinical reference services available.
Deploying extra features like these in your system can help make it more likely that you'll be a rising boat when the money starts pouring in.
What do all of these have in common? Well for one thing, they are being driven in part by the demands of Meaningful Use requirements.
Here is just one example of Meaningful Use effect. Some of the demands are actually in place, and many others roll out over the next few years. EPrescribing in Florida looks like it might be taking an interesting turn as free application provided by the State may be going away, or so I have heard. This recently
posted ePrecribing blog described it in greater detail. And
a second blog.
As Meaningful Use requirements have dictated more relevant application of medication and drug data within EMR and EHR systems, the awareness of the nuances of these databases has also gone up. Recognition of the following terms is becoming more commonplace: Drug Reference Database; Dosage Range, Dosing in Pediatrics, Drug Interaction List,
Pediatric Dosage Calculator, Medicine Interaction. Clinical Decision Support Systems, Drug Content, and more.
Matt Bennardo had a great
post last week regarding a study which showed the connection between EHRs and their improvement on pediatric care.
With several pediatric calculators on the market, how can one tell which to trust? A reference book can be helpful, yet many other considerations should be taken into account. It is vital to screen drug interactions with the full medicine list of the child along with their maturation. Having all this information readily available with an EMR can vastly work to reduce errors. When dealing with pediatrics, especially neonatal patients, attention to detail and continually updated, unbiased information is best. Lexicomp has all the options to achieve improved safety for patients of any age.
These options include:
- Pediatric Dosage Calculations in both transactional information for the clinical decision support systems and reference materials designed for clinicians.
- Pediatric focused patient education materials
All the buzz about Meaningful Use sometimes makes us forget what EHR implementation is really supposed to be about -- improving patient care. But
this article from Practice Fusion's blog reminds us that EHR use can reduce errors, save lives, and makes it easier to serve patients better. That's what the real objective is!
The study in the article highlights the benefits of EHR use when pediatric patients are concerned. The researchers were able to link the use of electronic health records and associated clinical decision support systems to a quantifiable decrease in infant mortality -- especially among neonatal patients.
Of course, to get these kinds of results, the information in the EHR needs to be accurate, timely, complete, actionable, and specific to the patient. With respect to pediatric and neonatal patients, that last point is especially important. An EHR that is only set up to perform dose range checking and interaction checking on adults won't be nearly as helpful when it comes to children.
But luckily there are drug information vendors like Lexicomp that understand there is a vast world of difference between adults and children -- and often between older children and neonates. Lexicomp's drug information is trusted by dozens of EHR vendors to guide clinicians in prescribing, fulfilling, and administering drugs to patients of all types -- including children.
Lexicomp provides both "machine readable" transactional information (geared towards specific populations) for use in clinical decision support, as well as "human readable" reference materials for clinicians and patients. Even Lexicomp's patient education leaflets are written with either adult or pediatric patients in mind.
The market for anesthesia information systems is predicted to increase 50% by 2012 and be valued at $4 billion by 2017. According to a new report by iData Research (www.idataresearch.net), the leading global authority in medical device market research, the U.S. anesthesia, respiratory and sleep-management device market will reach approximately $4 billion by 2017, with strong growth being driven by anesthesia information management system (AIMS) sales. This report is accompanied by two companion reports, "Electronic Medical Records" and "Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS)", which forecast rapid adoption of medical information technology due to approaching deadlines set out by the U.S. government's Healthcare Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.
Lexicomp maintains an Anesthesiology & Critical Care database that presents information on over 2000 medications used in the care of surgical or critically ill patients. This is a must-have drug reference for anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, intensivists, and other critical care practitioners.
When utilizing our Web API Solution, Web Services, or XML datasets, this type of information can be accessed from within the workflow. This integration delivers detailed drug and clinical reference information , including anesthesia and critical care concerns, use, dosage, monitoring parameters, and anesthetic drug interactions, where applicable to physicians, pharmacists and nurses, supporting improved decisions at the point-of-care.
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