What You Should Know: 

– VieCure, a leading cancer care company, announced today that it’s integrating DrFirst’s e-prescribing and medication management solutions into its clinical decision support system. 

– VieCure is a well-established point-of-care intelligence system specifically designed for community oncologists. Utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), patient data, and a comprehensive oncology knowledge base, VieCure generates personalized treatment plans for cancer patients, including medication recommendations.

Expanding Functionality with DrFirst

VieCure is taking its partnership with DrFirst, a health technology pioneer, a step further. They are adding DrFirst’s flagship electronic prescribing platform, Rcopia, to their existing use of EPCS Gold, a controlled substance prescribing solution.

Benefits of Rcopia Integration:

• Improved Workflow Efficiency: Rcopia offers a streamlined workflow for all e-prescribing needs, reducing administrative burden for physicians and clinical staff.
• Enhanced Patient Care: Rcopia provides access to the nation’s most complete medication history data feed, along with allergy and clinical alerts. This allows for better-informed prescribing decisions.
• Price Transparency: Rcopia integrates price transparency tools, enabling informed discussions about medication costs between patients and providers.
• Promoting Medication Adherence: Tools within Rcopia encourage patients to adhere to their medication regimens, leading to potentially better treatment outcomes.
• Comprehensive Pain Management View: Direct access to state prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) gives prescribers a complete picture of a patient’s pain management medications.

“VieCure’s integration of DrFirst’s Rcopia underscores our dedication to enhancing patient safety, optimizing clinical workflows, and satisfying customers,” said Fred Ashbury, PhD, MACE, VieCure co-founder and chief scientific officer. “We look forward to providing our clients with Rcopia’s advanced features for medication history, medication adherence monitoring, electronic prior authorizations, and real-time prescription benefit checks.”

What You Should Know:

– Medisafe launches a new Medisafe Maestro platform that brings precision and speed to patient journeys.

– The new platform aims to revolutionize digital health platforms by combining a host of resources to help patients through any hurdle in their journey and updates and monitoring happen in real-time to meet patients in their moments.

Medisafe, a Boston, MA-based digital therapeutics companion platform, announced the immediate deployment of its new Medisafe Maestro platform. This advanced technology seamlessly orchestrates medication adherence journeys with precision and speed, creating personalized patient support resources delivered through a digital drug companion. Medisafe supports the pharmaceutical ecosystem with digital patient support resources through its personalized digital drug companion and integrated Care Connector which activates real-time patient engagement. 

Supporting patients across their unique treatment needs requires a coordinated approach with tailored interventions and specific resources to meet patients in their moments. Medisafe Maestro fosters collaboration with partners to build adaptive patient journeys that address individual challenges, providing personalized support to navigate through any roadblocks to continue treatment. With every patient behavior, Medisafe Maestro continuously optimizes the journey, incorporating elements such as patient education, clinician guidance, guided treatment videos, financial support awareness and includes family, friends, and caregivers into treatment. 

Orchestrated Approach to Digital Medication Management Journeys

Medisafe Maestro increases the speed to market with its advanced functionality, such as: 

– Central Command Center to manage the creation and collaboration of digital drug companions that digitize patient support programs.

– Interactive Flow Mapping to design the inventory of supportive content, including rules and intervention deployment, and an archive of creative images and brand style. 

– Intuitive step-by-step build that processes and delivers concurrent, sequential, and exception-based patient support tools. 

– Compliance Oversight that aligns business goals with ISI display configuration and Medical Legal Regularity (MLR) review.

– Real-time Visibility provides insights into patient journeys. 

“The introduction of Medisafe Maestro aims to revolutionize digital health platforms by enhancing the speed and agility in developing and deploying branded patient resources, bolstering treatment adherence, and improving patient outcomes,” said Omri Shor, Medisafe Chief Executive Officer. “Optimizing patient journeys requires hundreds or thousands of modifications that can impact a patient, creating challenges or roadblocks to successful treatment. Until now, this often meant starting from scratch with every patient flow process for drug partners. But Medisafe Maestro has done all of the heavy lifting, advancing innovation with enhanced patient support engagement.” 

Availability

The company has already implemented the system for several partners who praised the increased functionality and faster build time, including its agile environment and ease of use.

What You Should Know:

– Walmart acquires app-based patient medication management platform CareZone for reportedly $200M to enhance its digital health and wellness capabilities.

– CareZone’s technology and team members will join Walmart to augment their current Health & Wellness capabilities and support its focus on digital health care solutions. CareZone will remain a separate company unrelated to Walmart.

Walmart announced it has acquired CareZone, a San Francisco, CA-based smartphone service for managing chronic health conditions for reportedly $200M. Founded in 2012, Founded in 2012 by former CEO of Sun Microsystems, Jonathan Schwartz and former Microsoft and Apple engineer, Walter Smith, CareZone helps individuals, families, and caregivers manage chronic health conditions. The company makes it easy to manage multiple medications, automate pharmacy refill requests, organize and share caregiving information, and access insurance services, all from a delightfully simple smartphone app. 

CareZone Pharmacy Services

CareZone facilitates prescription medication delivery throughout the nation. By working with a network of pharmacy partners, CareZone’s concierge services assist consumers in getting their prescription medications organized and delivered to their doorstep, making pharmacies more accessible to individuals and families who may be homebound or live in rural locations.

“Acquiring the technology platform of CareZone is another example of our continued commitment to helping lower the cost of healthcare for our 160 million customers who shop Walmart each week while offering convenient options across multiple channels to help them manage their health and wellness,” said Lori Flees, Senior Vice President, Health & Wellness, Sam’s Club, & Sean Slovenski, Senior Vice President, Health & Wellness, Walmart U.S. in the company announcement.  

Integration Plans for Walmart

As part of the acquisition, Walmart will integrate Carezone’s technology platform with their existing Digital Health & Wellness capabilities and support its increasing focus on digital health solutions. CareZone will continue to operate as a stand-alone company unrelated to Walmart.

“The goal of any technology startup is to build a product or experience that touches the lives of as many people as possible,” said Walter Smith, co-founder and chief technology officer of CareZone. “Adding our technology platform to Walmart’s existing digital capabilities and physical reach creates a unique opportunity to redefine what the future of digital health and wellness can look like. The CareZone team members joining Walmart are excited to bring our knowledge and apply it to such a broad canvas.”

Impact on Digital Health & Prescription Drug Market

“Consumers are engaging and adapting with digital health more than ever and incorporating it into their daily routines. With Walmart, you’re taking a retail giant with pharmacy capabilities and licenses across all 50 states and adding a digital health component. It’s a great model for Walmart and this acquisition solidly moves them into the digital health space. Walmart will now gain vast amounts of healthcare consumer data and, coupled with its vast network of brick and mortar stores, the addition of CareZone may even put it one step ahead of Amazon. What will be key to watch for is Walmart’s ability to support those patients managing chronic conditions who require dedicated programs to affect lasting behavior change in addition to end-to-end support which requires coordination across the healthcare ecosystem,” said Omri Shor, CEO and Co-Founder, Medisafe.

Using a Health Information Exchange (HIE), clinicians across multidisciplinary care teams can access a patient’s medications, reconcile the list and monitor their progress, thereby reducing medication errors and future costs from preventable hospital admissions.

Multiple factors combine to make the prescribing, supplying and taking of medications a perilous and costly issue for patients and the healthcare sector. Prescription medication use is by far the most common health intervention. Unsurprisingly, medication errors are also common. 

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), a medication error may occur at any point in the medication management process. The process begins when a clinician prescribes a medication, continues while the patient receives the medication and ends when the patient has completed the prescribed supply of medication. 

Ongoing monitoring of the patient and their medication experience is essential in all but the most trivial of circumstances. Most medication pathways rely on sound communication between providers to ensure the pathway is followed and errors are avoided. Even so, medication errors are common and may cause unnecessary patient harm, hospitalization, and even fatality.

An adverse drug event (ADE) is defined as harm experienced by a patient as a result of exposure to a medication. ADEs have multiple causes including medication errors, drug and allergic reactions, and overdoses. Adverse drug events are not necessarily an indication of clinician error. For instance, a patient developing a cough while taking an ACE inhibitor for the first time is experiencing an ADE, however, if the patient was prescribed the medication for a sound clinical reason, it may not represent a medication error. The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion estimates the rate of ADEs is 2 million per year in the United States. Most experts agree that about half of all ADEs are preventable.  

Terms Relevant to Drug-Related Harm  

Between 5 and 10 percent of hospital admissions in the U.S. are medication-related. The general consensus is that ADEs are more likely to occur during transitions of care, such as discharge from the hospital. At points of transition, it is common for information not to be transferred accurately and completely. It is estimated that ADEs comprise one-third of hospital adverse events, affect approximately 2 million hospital stays annually and prolong hospital length of stay by between 1.7 to 4.6 days. Surveillance data indicate that ADEs account for more than 3.5 million physician office visits, 1 million emergency department visits and approximately 125,000 hospital admissions each year.

Care Coordination and Medication Management

With respect to medications, care coordination focuses on the organization and sharing of medication information between the different roles caring for the patient. The circle of care, defined as the group of healthcare providers treating a patient who needs the information to provide that care, is a key component. All caregivers in the circle are entitled to access the patient’s healthcare record, including their medication record as they are all involved in the treatment of the patient and need that information to provide that care. 

A mechanism of action transmitting a request for medication-related information between a pharmacist and a family physician helps coordinate the patient’s medication management. Care coordination activities have the potential to be taken for granted and therefore neglected in the design of IT systems. 

Medication Reconciliation

The cornerstone for successful medication reconciliation is creating the best possible medication list by using a systematic approach based on a patient/carer interview and reviewing all other medication sources such as prescription bottles, discharge medication orders or pharmacy records. Numerous studies have shown that no single source of medication use is fully accurate and reliable, hence the need to use a variety of data sources.

The evidence base supporting the benefits of reconciling medications is poor. While many studies have been performed, they have generally been on small sample sizes with widely varying approaches and definitions. Even so, there is agreement that medication reconciliation should be performed at points of care transition, especially admission and discharge from the hospital. 

Medicine reconciliation is considered a strong driver of the interoperability agenda and is a missing link to improving health information exchange. A recent survey of hospitals by the American Hospital Association found a strong correlation between medication reconciliation and interoperability and recommended policymakers focus on the adoption of medication reconciliation to help advance interoperability and health information exchange.

Medication Management 

Access to complete information pulled from multiple sources and presented in a concise way is an essential part of all medication management. Electronically available information can supplement and help interpret the medication history taken from the patient. This should include information from electronic medical records (EMRs), pharmacies and claims data, as well as patient,  contributed information via systems like patient portals.

There is a process to medication management, from the initiation by a prescriber (typically but not always a physician) through to dispensing (typically by a pharmacist), administration (either by a nurse, the patient themselves or a care worker) and ongoing, regular monitoring. 

The latest medication list should be identified as such, including the provenance of that medication list, such as who it was performed by, their name and date, and available at all points of care where medications are involved.

The ability to perform medication reconciliation at all points of care with the output of the final medication list is essential. Physicians may prefer to use their EMR while community pharmacists may prefer to use an HIE. The point is that information needs to be messaged between all modalities, hence the concern for interoperability between systems.

It is highly likely that in the future pharmacists will be tasked with an enhanced role in patient care, meaning they will take their rightful place in the patient’s multi-disciplinary care team. Pharmacists will need access to technologies that fully interoperate with both EMRs and regional HIEs. This will enable them to readily access the relevant information drawn from all possible sources so they can more quickly and accurately make decisions based on complete information about the patient. Having medication information available across the circle of care and across the health economy will be essential to improvements to the safety of patients as they are prescribed and use medications across the entire health system.

About the Author

Dr. Chris Hobson, MD MBA is the Chief Medical Officer with Orion Health, a global healthcare platform advancing Population Health Management and Precision Medicine solutions in the health community. He is responsible for the clinical direction of Orion Health products and solutions and ensures the protection of patient safety and privacy in everything Orion Health does.

Medisafe’s new life-saving integration with Apple Health Records, which just became available to consumers. Medisafe is a medication management app that helps prevent deadly drug-to-drug interactions as well as fending off thousands of health risks and preventable hospitalizations.  With Health Records, Medisafe can surface medications from multiple providers, and people will have even more access to their medication records and knowledge of potential DDIs.

DDIs cause nearly 74,000 emergency room visits and 195,000 hospitalizations each year in the US. Close to 40 percent of the U.S. population receive prescriptions for four or more medications. Over a third of older adults in the U.S. regularly use 5 or more medications or supplements, and 15 percent are potentially at-risk for a major DDI.

Why So Many DDIs Happen

Often doctors aren’t aware of what other clinicians have prescribed, and patients simply don’t always have a clear understanding – or access – to their medication list and what interacts, creating a potentially fatal disconnect. Even grapefruit juice can cause major interactions with prominent drugs like statins.

With secure visibility to each iPhone user’s health records, Medisafe will be able to deliver critical Drug-to-Drug Interaction notifications immediately, once prescriptions are uploaded by physicians. These occur when a patient has prescribed two or more medications, vitamins or supplements that negatively interact with each other.

Apple Health Records/Medisafe Integration

iPhone users who set up Health Records via the pre-installed Health app can now accurately and automatically import their prescriptions from participating health systems to Medisafe without manual entry, quickly enabling drug interaction identification as well as pill reminders, and educational information. The DDI feature alerts people immediately if prescribed medications could have a potentially harmful interaction.

To date, Medisafe has alerted users to more than 93,171 DDIs, of which more than 50 percent (46,326) were major or severe/ life-threatening. In fact, Medisafe is responsible for identifying eight potentially lethal interactions every day on average– while helping users fend off thousands of health risks and preventable hospitalizations.

“As the only Health Records app featured in Apple’s launch to developers last June, Medisafe has used the Health Records API to bring consumers a private, easy-to-use solution that both helps them stay on track with their meds and safeguards them against harmful drug interactions,” said Medisafe co-founder and CEO Omri Shor.

Hackensack Meridian Health, today announced it has invested in Pillo, an AI-powered home care robot companion that empowers patients to better manage their health at home, connecting them to caregivers and family members. The investment marks the first product funded through Hackensack Meridian Health’s $25 million innovation program to support the improvement of health care delivery. The health network’s novel incubator has vetted many products and strategies to streamline care delivery, reduce infections, lower hospital readmissions and help patients partner in their care with physicians.

Together, the Pillo Health team and experts from Hackensack Meridian Health will now look to identify novel use cases for the technology within the hospital system and develop a pilot and commercialization roadmap to bring Pillo to market.

Boston-based Pillo Health, a leading in-home digital care management company, created Pillo to serve as a medical hub in the home. Sitting on a table or countertop, Pillo’s AI-powered capabilities are built on the Orbita platform reminds people to take medication at the appropriate time, dispenses their medications, digitally coordinates prescription refills and connects individuals in their homes with physicians, caregivers and loved ones.

One of Pillo Health’s primary goals is to support improvements in medication compliance. Prescription noncompliance adds a huge financial burden to the U.S. healthcare system, costing billions of dollars per year, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hospital admission rates increase for non-adherent patients with chronic illness by up to 69 percent, according to the CDC.

For example, Pillo can alert a family member if an elderly relative misses a medication dose. Pillo can also connect a patient or family member with a physician via videoconference and provide an on-screen display of essential medical data as obtained from the patient’s electronic medical record.

“Innovation is in our DNA at Hackensack Meridian Health,’’ said Andrew Pecora, M.D., president of physician enterprise and chief innovation officer. “This first project funded less than a year after launching our ideation center is a major achievement to improve health care.’’

Innovation Center Background

Hackensack Meridian Health joined with the New Jersey Innovation Institute, an affiliate of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, bringing together engineers, scientists, health care experts and others to launch innovations to improve health care delivery. Hackensack Meridian created an Innovation Center where aspiring companies present their concepts to the center’s ideation group. Those deemed ready are presented to the “Bear’s Den” group of Hackensack Meridian’s  Innovation Center to decide on investment.

The best ideas have reached the Bear’s Den, a panel of experts headed by Dr. Pecora and including venture capitalists, a patent attorney, medical and financial experts, and Hackensack Meridian Health Co-CEOs Robert C. Garrett and John K. Lloyd. Through investments from the $25 million fund, the network will help bring exceptional innovations to market.

A new BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) survey conducted by HIMSS Analytics®, 2017 Medication Management and Safety Survey, found more than 75 percent of physicians, nurses and pharmacists surveyed described the medication management process as “flawed,” “fragmented,” “disjointed” and “primitive.” 

The survey of 153 physicians, nurses and pharmacists, and 1,131 patients and their family members sheds light on the current state of patient safety, patient perceptions toward medication management and, perhaps most importantly, healthcare professionals’ thoughts on potential solutions to help the healthcare industry move toward the elimination of errors.

While healthcare organizations have made progress with various technologies in recent years, they have a long road ahead to eliminate harmful medication errors altogether.The greatest vulnerability in the medication management process exists in care transitions, according to the survey results. Indeed, 32 percent of clinicians cited care transitions as the area of greatest concern, while 24 percent pointed to the patient bedside, and 15 percent had concerns with the medication management process while in the pharmacy. 

Additional results revealed:

– Nearly half of healthcare professionals surveyed cited better integration with electronic health records as an opportunity for improvement

– More than 70 percent of organizations surveyed see the value in moving to a single vendor for medication management

– Over a quarter of clinicians polled stated that data from medication management devices do not integrate well with EHRs at their facilities

– 56 percent of healthcare professionals surveyed indicated that their medication management process fails to capture 20 percent or more of medication errors

– Nearly 40 percent of the patients and families who participated in the survey feel more protected than ever before.

– More than 96 percent of patients and family members trust that their medications will be administered according to the five rights (right patient, drug, dose, route and time), with a full 60 percent of respondents reporting supreme confidence.

–  23 percent of patients reported that they have experienced a medication error. And, one in five of these patients suffered from “severe repercussions.” In addition, 38 percent of respondents reported that they know someone who has experienced a medication error ― and of those, 35 percent experienced a prolonged length of stay; 23 percent, severe repercussions; and 7 percent, death.

–  90 percent of medication errors through their medication management processes point to closed-loop medication tools as the primary cause of their success (63 percent), followed by attention from leadership (55 percent), ongoing training (47 percent) and seamless integration with the EHR (32 percent).

“BD is partnering with IT industry leaders and collaborating with customers to help address these evolving medication management challenges,” said Ranjeet Banerjee, worldwide president of Medication Management Solutions for BD. “By leveraging these partnerships, we will improve interoperability across the medication management process, enhance cybersecurity and develop advanced analytics to drive sustained customer outcomes.”

Report Background/Methodology

The professional online survey was administered to 153 physicians, nurses and pharmacists between May 23 and June 23, 2017. In addition, in-depth interviews with 20 of these professionals were conducted between June 16 and June 28, 2017. The patient and family online survey was administered between June 19 and June 23, 2017, and included 1,131 individuals who had a loved one admitted to the hospital within the previous 12 months.