Making Clinical Decision Support Valuable

The final rules for Meaningful Use of Electronic Medical Records were published a few weeks ago.  EMR vendors are scrambling to understand if their products will meet these specifications and pass the associated certification requirements of testing bodies.  But what does this mean for a drug content vendor? While those companies are not under any direct ruling regarding meaningful use, their products are tightly integrated with the EMRs.  Content vendors provide the drug database to support the meaningful use specified functionality of drug interaction checking and drug allergy checking. Additionally, drug database vendors provide the basic medication lists that support a number of EMR functions, including medication selection for provider order entry, medication lists that drive patient education materials and medication lists that support e-prescribing activities. It is important to understand the key role that a drug database can have in successfully meeting the meaningful use criteria.