An EHR vendor is teaming up with a prescription drug monitoring program vendor to make accessing PDMP data easier for physicians.
Allscripts' nationwide integration partnership with PDMP platform vendor Appriss Health aims to maximize the impact of PDMP data by providing data access within the clinician's workflow. A specific date for the integration has not yet been announced.
"We spent the better part of two-plus years building what we think is a powerful ecosystem to get multistate data ... into that clinical workflow," said Rob Cohen, president of Appriss Health.
Integrating PDMP data access within the EHR
Cohen said making PDMP data more accessible for clinicians and pharmacists means integrating a platform to access PDMP data and analytics directly into the Allscripts EHR workflows.
PDMP data access will occur via the integration of Appriss Health's PMP Gateway, which integrates with a variety of EHRs and pharmacy management systems. The integration will also include access to Appriss Health's NarxCare platform, a PDMP analytics tool.
While PMP Gateway delivers PDMP data, NarxCare provides clinicians with an analysis of that data, Cohen said. NarxCare uses a series of algorithms applied to the PDMP data to present patient risk scores to a clinician. Cohen said the platform functions as an awareness tool.
"We have extensive training material we provide to clinicians and we explain in detail that elevated scores should be a prompt for you to look deeper at the data and have a conversation with the patient," Cohen said.
We spent the better part of two-plus years building what we think is a powerful ecosystem to get multistate data ... into that clinical workflow.
Rob Cohenpresident, Appriss Health
NarxCare also offers an array of clinical tools, such as a Medication-Assisted Treatment locator and printable information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding opioids and opioid use.
"The vision we're working toward is to make much more powerful tools available," Cohen said.
PMP Gateway also acts as the integration module of PMP InterConnect, which is the national database nearly all PDMPs are connected to and facilitates transferring PDMP data across state lines, Cohen said.
By providing access to PDMP data from multiple states and data analytics in the clinician's workflow, Cohen said it eliminates the need for clinicians to log in to multiple portals. When a clinician opens a patient's chart in the Allscripts EHR, that individual's risk scores determined by NarxCare will be immediately available. Cohen said there will be a button clinicians can click that includes visualizations, PDMP data and clinical tools.
Accessing PDMP data once integration is complete
Allscripts customers have the option of choosing to implement both the PMP Gateway and NarxCare, or just the PMP Gateway.
"They can contact Allscripts, and after coding to the API of PMP Gateway, can make that connection, and then it goes live within the records systems of those health systems," Cohen said.
Additionally, Cohen said PMP Gateway can be configured to enforce the PDMP laws of individual states.
"When they start accessing data from those multiple states, they're doing it in accordance with laws and regulations of all the states. ... That's all taken off their plate and built into this service," he added.
While the PMP Gateway service is live in multiple states supporting almost 250,000 providers across the country, Cohen said the Allscripts and Appriss Health integration is still under development.
"We are aggressively moving to provide our clinicians with a solution that offers objective information and insights into a patient's risk for drug misuse, abuse, overdose and death so patients can be provided with the most effective and appropriate care," said Tom Langan, CEO of the payer and life sciences business unit at Allscripts, in a news release.
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