The National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Library of Medicine (NLM) released a BETA version of a tool to help patients and healthcare providers identify medications via its physical properties (e.g., shape, color, imprint) and provide with FDA content consisting of links to medication information and labeling.

Although this tool is not really ready for full-time, clinical use - as evidenced by the disclaimer and the broken URLs - this has the potential to be a very helpful tool, free of subscription fees.

Lastly, I see projects like these as further evidence that the demand for informatics-trained clinicians will far exceed the supply in the marketplace.

In a follow-up to Dr. Flynn’s commentary, John Poikonen, PharmD, director of clinical informatics at University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center, in Worcester, agreed that study is needed. Writing in the April 15 issue of AJHP (2009;66:704-705). Dr. Poikonen urged the design of a study “to assess the patient-safety effects of eliminating NUPOR on certain orders.” 

He stressed that cutting NUPOR would not be appropriate for chemotherapy or other high-risk medications, but rather for a “ ‘sweet spot’ of medications that can be safely and effectively reviewed electronically without pharmacist review.”

Dr. Maddux agreed that in certain settings, prospective order review can be valuable, particularly “in cases where patients and therapy are complex.” But, he added, in other situations, such as when CPOE and/or standardized order sets are used, “you are committing pharmacists to reviewing orders that have already been vetted and standardized.”

A better approach, according to Dr. Maddux, is to have more pharmacists on clinical teams actively involved in patient management at the bedside and in the clinic. “Prospective review at the time of the order may be more beneficial,” he said. If a pharmacist is involved on the clinical team caring for the patient, and “a suboptimal order is avoided to begin with, then there is no need for a pharmacist to go through all that review later,” when he or she may or may not have access to all the relevant information required to make the most informed decision regarding the order.

While recognizing the importance of order entry review, Dr. Maddux stressed that “there could be improvements; NUPOR, in and of itself, for all comers, may not be the best way to go.”

Great article summarizing the interesting discussion that Dr. Poikonen recently prodded into the limelight.

Also nice to see the quote(s) from Dr. Maddux - the former clinical Dean from my alma mater - and his well-worded statement on the issue.

Walgreens pharmacies filled a record 3.1 million prescriptions electronically in March, about 15 percent of all the drugstore chain's eligible prescriptions and a 211 percent increase compared with March of last year.

Walgreens estimates it will fill more than 40 million electronic prescriptions this year compared with 15 million filled in 2008. The company expects growth to continue, as the federal government in January began providing financial incentives for doctors to transmit prescriptions electronically for Medicare patients. In exchange, the doctors will earn a 2 percent bonus on their covered Medicare reimbursements.

Also, the recently signed federal stimulus package should sharply bolster electronic prescribing throughout the United States by providing $36 billion in incentives to clinics and medical offices to adopt electronic health records. A core component of the upgraded technology will allow doctors access to software that makes electronic prescribing possible.

Source
Walgreens