EHR Vendors

Drug and interactions data is important to EMR and EHR systems -- it's what powers the clinical decision support functionality that makes it possible to write ePrescriptions, to qualify for Meaningful Use, or to save a patient's life by identifying an interaction or allergy that otherwise would have gone unnoticed.

But too often, EMR vendors don't spend much time looking at the quality of that data. It's a mistake to write off quality altogether -- but luckily there's an easy way to know if data sources are trusted by clinicians. Who uses it, and how? If doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and other clinicians are spending their own money to purchase that same data in reference resources, you can be pretty certain that they consider its quality to be good.

For thirty years, Lexicomp has been selling direct to clinicians
You know that Lexicomp's drug and interactions data is clinically relevant because that's who it was designed for, and that's who has been buying it for thirty years. Lexicomp would never have survived as a company if clinicians weren't willing to stake their professional careers on that data every day.

Now with Lexi-Data, your EMR or EHR can make use of that same information that clinicians have been relying on for years. When they check an interaction in your EMR, they'll see the same answer they get when they check Lexicomp's reference resources. Your EMR could be as trusted a source of information as Lexicomp's references already are.

That's powerful. It means that clinicians will turn to your EMR for answers, and will be more willing to use it. With more usage, your customers will more easily qualify for Meaningful Use -- collecting incentives and avoiding penalties. That makes it easier for you to show the value of the system.

Over the 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.

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.

 

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.

With EHR vendors all rushing to comply with Meaningful Use and ePrescribing requirements, focus on differentiating features can sometimes slip. But these differentiators are what will define the successful EHRs that come to rule the market.

One possible differentiator are clinical calculators. These tools add value to clinicians using your product, especially if patient and medication information from the EHR system can be auto-populated in the calculators. But where can you get such calculators to include in your product?

Lexicomp has been providing dozens of clinical calculators straight to physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and dentists for years through our online and mobile solutions. Now those calculators are also available for inclusion in your system as well. Choose just the ones that are relevant to your users and Lexicomp will provide you with the logic needed to embed these useful tools into your system.

Contact Lexicomp today using the links on this page to learn more!

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.

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.

As EMRs and EHRs incorporate more and more functions, they are going to be giving more advice and warnings to their users. A very real concern among many developers of health informatics systems is "alert fatigue" -- the idea that too many irrelevant alerts will annoy users. And worse, that a flood of useless alerts will cause users to ignore all alerts and warnings, rendering the system's automated checks pointless.

The only way to limit alert fatigue is to be more intelligent about when alerts are shown, and to whom. The key problem is not "too many alerts" -- it's "too many irrelevant alerts". There are two strategies that can help with this.

1. Allow users to customize their own alerts

Each user of your system likely has their own login which is theirs alone. This means that savvy EHR vendors can make it possible for clinicians to customize their own alerts. When an alert is shown, they can select whether they want to see the alert again -- in effect, controlling the information they see by telling the system not to show them alerts they consider irrelevant.

2. Intelligently manage alerts by types of users and circumstances

Another strategy is for the system to do some of this work ahead of time. If an alert applies only to administration, the system would know to show the alert to the prescribing doctor or the compounding pharmacist -- but instead only to the administering nurse. Likewise, if an alert applies only to pregnant women, the system would know not to show it if the patient in question is a man. This strategy relies on knowing things about your users (e.g., what kind of cilnician they are) and the circumstances of the encounter to anticipate which alerts may be irrelevant.

The most successful EMRs will likely use a combination of both approaches. But the second strategy can help alleviate alert fatigue immediately -- your users don't have to manage their own preferences to see the benefits. However, it also relies on detailed drug interaction databases able to finely slice alerts for you. Lexicomp is one medication information vendor that is innovating in this arena, and creating complex filters for many of its alerts and warnings.

Lexicomp is increasingly the preferred choice of EHR and EMR vendors for pharmaceutical and clinical information. What benefits do they deliver for developers?

1. Meaningful Use support: Including drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checking
2. Superior customer service: Every customer receives personal service, no matter the size
3. Advanced filtering options: A unique system of complex filters allows users to target Black Boxed Warnings to particular users and circumstances
4. Trusted content and name: Thousands of physicians, pharmacists, nurses, dentists, and other clinicians buy information direct from Lexicomp because they trust it
5. Full support for eprescribing: Customers have used Leicomp's clinical decision support to create their own e-prescribing modules for EMRs and EHRs

These are just five of the many benefits that Lexicomp customers enjoy. To find out more, request a demonstration today!

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!

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!

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/

Since ONC and CMS permitted specialists to file for exemptions from Meaningful Use guidelines, the challenge has been providing them with cost effective EHR and EMR solutions that meet their needs but are also government certified.

EHR vendors who build systems for specialists may not previously have thought about such functionality as ePrescribing, drug-drug interaction checking, drug-allergy interaction checking, and the ability to print patient education materials. But all these things are required in certified EHR systems -- even if specialists have exemptions from reporting on them.

Lexicomp is one drug information vendor that can help EHR vendors get their products certified for Meaningful Use more quickly, especially now that they have an extensive set of web services calls that provide the most important functionality without the need for on-site database integration. EHRs for specialists like chiropractors, dentists, oncologists, dermatologists, and more now have a new way to provide more value to their users.

As EHRs and EMRs become more widespread and more integrated into the daily activities of clinicians, concern over alert fatigue gows. This is one of the biggest issue facing developers today. The ideal EHR or EMR will provide the right alerts for the right clinicians, but won't overwhelm them.

Lexicomp is one drug data provider that is taking steps to address this issue. They have added multi-dimensional filtering to a set of Black Box Warning alerts. These filters allow EHR vendors to filter alerts by intended clinician, severity of the warning, and special conditions related to the alert.

For instance, an alert that applies only to pregnant women at the time of medication dose administration wouldn't display for pharmacists preparing the prescription or for male patients receiving the drug. When only relevant alerts are shown to clinicians, they come to value them more. The detail that Lexicomp includes in the alerts allows for smarter targeting. EHRs and EMRs can finally set themselves apart from the competition by helping clinicians solve a problem that is extremely important to them.

Now that ONC and CMS allow specialists and dentists to file exceptions from Meaningful Use requirements, many classes of clinicians find themselves able to qualify for incentive money. But even though they may not use much of a certified EHR's functionality, they're still required to implement a fully functional package to qualify.

This is something of a dilemma for vendors of EHR systems for specialists and dentists. How can they provide lightweight versions of functionality that may never be used, while still giving robust coverage of important features like e-prescribing? It's a development puzzle with seemingly no easy solution.

Are web services the answer?
Not every EHR or EMR can be successful relying on web services to fulfill Meaningful Use criteria, but specialists and dentists may be able to reap the benefits. Web services are inexpensive and quick to implement, and don't require you to maintain and update a complicated database of medications and other clinical concepts. Simply request the information you need via the web service when you need it, and it can be delivered to your application.

Lexicomp is one vendor that supplies robust web services to their own database of drug and clinical information. They provide enough functionality to fulfill every Stage 1 Meaningful Use requirement related to drug screening and interaction checking. They also have web services for the delivery of patient education materials.

If you think web services may be beneficial to your development, contact Lexicomp today to learn more.

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.

With all the focus on improving patient care with electronic medical records, it's strange that most medication and clinical data vendors don't allow developers to meaningfully use Black Box Warnings in their products. But one vendor, Lexicomp, is leading the way with detailed, customizable warnings that add value across the continuum of care.

What are Black Box Warnings and how do they help?
Black Box Warnings (also called Black Boxed Warnings) are the FDA's highest class of medication warning -- it indicates a precaution of the highest concern to patients or clinicians. They get their name from the distinctive black box that surrounds the warning on the packaged information that comes with drugs.

Not all Black Box Warnings are alike. Some are relevant at the time a drug is prescribed, others at the time the prescription is filled, and others when the drug is administered or stored. For this reason, different warnings are most likely to apply to different clinicians (or even the patient) along the continuum of care. Similarly, some warnings are only applicable to patients with special conditions (e.g., pregnancy), and some are considered by clinicians to be "obvious" warnings (e.g., only oncologists may prescribe cancer treatment regimens).

Yet, the information included in these warnings is very important -- so long as they are delivered at the right time to the right people. They can help save lives, reduce liability, and reduce the cost of care.

How do you get Black Box Warnings into your EMR system?
Until recently, there was no good way to get this information in an EMR, EHR, or HIS system. Some drug information vendors offer an indicator on their drug monographs that simply states "YES" or "NO" whether the drug has an associated Black Box Warning. It's still up to every clinician in the continuum of care -- the prescribing doctor, the fulfilling pharmacist, the administering nurse -- to look up those warnings in the drug's packaged inserts to see if they apply to them. This is an unnecessary extra step that could potentially lead to crucial missed information!

Lexicomp offers a better way. With Lexicomp, detailed information is provided about each Black Box Warning. In addition to the full text of the warning and additional context written by Lexicomp's staff of in-house experts, the warnings are all classified to make it easy to customize which ones appear for which clinicians. You can reduce alert fatigue by ensuring that only relevant warnings appear for particular clinicians or patients. Not only will your EMR be improving patient safety, but it will be making life easier for all of your users as well!

Since the beginning of the government's Meaningful Use incentive plan, specialists have been in a strange position. Although they were eventually granted the right to seek exceptions from certain measurement criteria that didn't apply to their fields, they are still required to implement fully functional EMR or EHR systems that can do everything the CMS and ONC stipulate.

An increasing number of dentists are in the same boat as well, as state mandates require them to implement systems that include functionality (like ePrescribing) that they may only use occasionally. This means that EMR vendors who create systems for specialists and dentists are now looking for ways to implement the broader functionality required by law without raising prices on their customers who may not see much value in it.

What are web services and how can they help?
Web services are a different method of accessing some of the functionality required by Meaningful Use and state mandates. Instead of implementing and updating a database in-house to drive the functionality, web services allow a vendor to access information remotely only when needed. By using web services, you don't need to expend valuable development resources on non-essential functions. You can also arrange with a vendor like Lexicomp to pay only for the functionality that you'll be using.

When it comes to functions like ePrescribing, dose range checking, interaction checking, and allergy checking, web services aren't appropriate for everyone. Heavy users of those functions will still want to have a local database they can quickly query with reliable redundant back-ups. But for those who consider this functionality a low priority or infrequent need, web services offer a new, more easily implemented, and sometimes less expensive solution to help dentists and specialists meet government requirements.

Contact Lexicomp today for more information!