As a standalone product, Lexi-Comp has consistently been rated higher than the competition on the basis of ease-of-use and ability to find answers quickly for drug reference information. With its intuitive interface and layout, Lexi-Comp helps clinicians find direct answers to tough clinical questions faster than other commonly used drug information resources.
Today, having that information integrated into the workflow is a critical factor to increase efficiency and productivity while enhancing patient safety at the point-of-care.
Lexi-Comp offers the ability to integrate our reference content from Lexi-Comp, our trusted resource used at thousands of hospitals and healthcare systems. This integration option provides the ability to link from within workflow applications to more detailed Lexi-Comp reference information, aiding in pharmacotherapy decision making.
Lexi-Comp has integration established with many of the well know health care information system providers such as Cerner, Epic, Eclipsys, Meditech, Siemens and GE through the InfoButton Standard which ultimately provides one-click access to Lexi-Comp reference content such as drug monographs, patient education material which is available in 18 languages, drug interactions and more. Vendors or hospitals also have the option to utilize our Web Services which provides users with access to the same reference content however instead of providing the Lexi-Comp ‘look and feel’, our Web Services provides XML data that is obtained via standardized calls. This XML is then parsed and then displayed within the vendor’s own ‘look and feel’ providing complete customization.
I think that we are all aware of the various discussion topics in the EMR and EHR space related to Meaningful Use requirements, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) incentive requirements, and SureScripts Certification. The latest news was that the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology named the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), Drummond Group Inc., and InfoGard Laboratory, Inc. as the initial Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies for the electronic health records certification program. I would imagine that the companies that are able to stay ahead of the curve will continue to grow however, can the 500+ EMR and EHR vendors all survive this regulation wave? If you are an EMR or EHR vendor, choosing the best drug information provider is critical because time to market is vital.
So how do you choose the right provider? You should expect that your drug information vendor offer a variety of delivery options such as database tables that are compatible with Oracle®, SQL Server®, and MySQL® . The vendor should also provide a Software Development Kit (SDK) powered by Java™ or .NET APIs. Drug Databases are generally extremely normalized and complicated to navigate so utilizing a light weight and easy to use API and save tremendous time. The vendor should provide a high level of customer service and demonstrate a sense of urgency to client requests. They should also earn your loyalty by listening attentively and understand your needs, and then deliver a solution that translates into a mutually beneficial arrangement for both organizations.
What are the impacts associated with Personal Health Records on physicians? What are physicians feeling towards the push for Personal Health Records? What happens when Personal Health Records websites are utilizing drug information resources that are unstructured and unreliable? This, obviously, could generate inaccurate patient concerns / questions and unanticipated / unnecessary questions for the healthcare professionals.
Education is the key to patient compliance in medication dosing and safety. Lexi-Comp has long been an industry leader in delivering clear, concise, accurate drug information. Our products and services are utilized by healthcare professionals worldwide and now, many companies are turning to Lexi-Comp for quality, patient-focused, drug information for consumers and patients.
Lexi-Comp has drug information that is designed for consumers. Lexi-Comp’s content provides consumer based sites, hospitals that are developing patient sites, or any other healthcare focused company with the tools to integrate drug information. Lexi-Comp’s consumer focused information covers areas such as drug interactions, drug images, warnings and precautions, patient education leaflets that are available in 18 different languages, drug pronunciations that are delivered as .wav files, and much more.
The Final Rule on Meaningful Use removes uncertainty about the capabilities EHRs must support, the functions users must perform, and the measures for certifying physicians and hospitals to receive the federal incentives which puts EHR adoption on the fast track. How will EHRs comply with Meaningful Use?
Lexi-Data offers medication decision support that helps meet the needs of clinical decision support. Lexi–Data provides EHR companies with the drug data needed to build drug, drug interaction checking, drug disease alerts, duplicate therapy alerts and dose range checking into EMRs. With our industry leading SDK and APIs our drug data can be easily integrated into EHRs to help become certified. Our SDK and our advanced API will help to get EHRs to market fast and implementation teams will save time allowing them to focus on more involved development needs. The pricing model of Lexi-Data is scalable and flexible to appropriately meet the needs of small to large companies looking to grow their business without making huge investments up front. Lexi-Data and our dedicated support team will offer the flexibility to grow and enhance your drug data as your EMR matures.
As e-prescribing standards go into effect, the interest in this technology appears to be on the radar of all electronic medical record providers due to the push of government incentives, health IT provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the impact of Meaningful Use, and much more. The DEA has recently issued an interim ruling that would allow electronic transmission of prescriptions of controlled substances. Up until now, the DEA has been concerned that the lack of security controls for e-prescribing of controlled substances would lead to higher levels of illegal use. The good news with this ruling is that this opens up opportunities for healthcare professionals in the dental space because the majority of the medications that they prescribe are schedule II drugs. Ultimately, this interim ruling should help reduce the number of prescription errors caused by illegible handwriting, as well as the number of misunderstood verbally ordered prescriptions.
In addition to our strategic partnerships with e-prescribing vendors that utilize Lexi-Comp’s decision support information such as drug interaction software checking (drug-drug and drug-food), drug allergy checking, therapeutic duplication checking, dose range checking (adult and pediatric) and more, Lexi-Comp also offers drug reference book information that is written by dentists for dental professionals.
The implementation of electronic health records (EHR) claims to help reduce medical errors by providing healthcare professionals with clinical decision support. Some of the existing EHR providers in the hospital setting have the software architecture that allows the hospital to choose the drug data knowledge base that the hospital prefers to use however, there are other EHR providers in the hospital setting that force the hospital to use the drug data knowledge source without any choice. Drug data is a critical component that has an impact on healthcare costs and the overall quality of patient care, so having the ability to select which knowledge base should be a consideration of the EHR vendor.
I have had discussions with various hospitals that are not satisfied with their current EHR provider's drug knowledge base and have expressed an interested in evaluating other drug data resources such as Lexi-Data.
Lexi-Comp offers a product called Lexi-Data that contains decision support information such as drug interaction software (drug-drug and drug-food), drug allergy checking, therapeutic duplication checking, dose range checking (adult and pediatric) and more. Lexi-Data also contains drug reference book information, dose administrations, dosage precautions, dosing in pediatrics, and much more. Delivery options include database tables that are compatible with Oracle, SQL Server, and MySQL and an easily implemented Software Development Kit (SDK) powered by Jav or .NET APIs.
In 2009, the number of prescriptions dispensed in the U.S. increased 2.1% to 3.9 billion, IMS Health reported. Today’s pharmacist must take on more responsibilities, including prospective drug review on each prescription, the duty to warn of a physician’s error, the duty to counsel and monitor controlled substance prescriptions for abuse, and much much more.
In all human activities, a certain number of errors are inevitable, but the public expects pharmacists, and the medical profession in general, to be perfect. Most errors cause little or no harm, but certain pharmacy errors can lead to very serious consequences. While visiting a retail pharmacy store, I observed the working conditions in the retail pharmacy and realized that they far exceeded my expectations related what I had anticipated the "standard" workload of a pharmacist to be. This highly demanding workload for pharmacists increases the potential for medication errors as the prescription volume is exceeding capacity which, as a patient, is concerning.
Having content that is continually updated that provides access to the most current information available is critical. Additionally, decision support information such as drug interaction software checking (drug-drug and drug-food), drug allergy checking, duplicate therapy checking, dosage range checking (adult and pediatric), and dosage precautions are necessary to help reduce adverse drug events.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA, of 2009, provides $19 billion for HIT -- $17 billion in incentives to encourage the adoption of HIT by Medicare and Medicaid providers during the next five years and $2 billion in direct funding for the nation's HIT infrastructure.
It seems that at every conference I attend, topics covering Meaningful Use of EHR requirements, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) incentive requirements, SureScripts Certification for ePrescribing, and CCHIT Certification continue to be the reoccurring themes. It is apparent that everybody in healthcare is having difficulties in understanding what all of this actually means.
Once (or maybe the better question is, IF) the definitions are provided and they don’t change, who is responsible for proving it? Is it the vendor or the healthcare professional? If it is the vendor, then are we assuming that the end user simply has to prove they have that version that is 'certified' or will the end user have to prove that they are providing ‘meaningful’ patient care to receive the incentive payments?
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