FDB (First DataBank Inc..), the leading provider of drug and medical device knowledge that helps healthcare professionals make precise decisions, announced the release of the FDB Opioid Risk Management Module™ that helps reduce the risk of opioid-related overdose and addiction potential. This module provides a presentation of a daily Morphine Milligram Equivalents (MME) calculation to support regulatory compliance, along with an assessment of the potential additive respiratory and central nervous system depression side effects, all within the clinician’s workflow. Emerging pain management guidelines leverage MME as an attribute to describe the relative potency of medications that span different opiate ingredients.

Awareness of the prevalence of addiction risk, overdose and accidental death associated with opioid use has peaked in recent years as practitioners and regulatory authorities, in both the United States and Canada, grapple with the opioid epidemic. Opioid treatment guidelines, prescription drug monitoring programs, regulatory-based prescribing limits, payer-based claims review, medication therapy management programs, and prior authorization constraints are increasingly being implemented to stem the cycle of abuse, misuse, addiction and overdose.

However, clinician adherence to prescribing and dispensing restrictions and guidelines are daunting unless system-based controls are implemented within the clinician’s daily workflow. For example, prescribed patient medication characteristics of dosage, long-acting formulations, day-supply dispensed, or additive side effect potential spanning active patient medications, can all be quantified as risk factors.

The FDB Opioid Risk Management Module provides information that enables calculation of the relative potency of opioid-containing medications, and the identification of additive side effects known as the "double threat" and "triple threat," to improve safety and regulatory compliance in opioid use for patients. The double threat is the concurrent use of opioids and benzodiazepines, and the triple threat is the double threat plus concurrent use of non-benzodiazepine sedative/hypnotics or muscle relaxants.

DrFirst is the first FDB customer to deploy the opioid drug knowledge to support Nebraska’s enhanced Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP), which, as of January 1, is the first state to require the tracking of all dispensed prescriptions, including those for controlled substances through the state’s PDMP. DrFirst’s solution, powered by FDB drug knowledge, alerts providers of patients receiving several dispensed opioid prescriptions and identifies overlapping dispensed prescriptions of opioids and benzodiazepines. The solution will identify patients who may benefit from closer monitoring, the reduction or tapering of opioids, the prescribing of naloxone, or other measures that reduce the risk of overdose.

"FDB’s opioid risk management drug knowledge will provide valuable data to the state of Nebraska in this first-in-the nation effort to address opioid abuse before it becomes a crisis in that state," said G. Cameron Deemer, president of DrFirst. "The focus in Nebraska is primarily around patient safety and outcomes. The inclusion of complete prescription data in the PDMP database helps combat the abuse of opioids by giving providers and pharmacists a more complete picture of a patient’s medication history, allowing opioid use to be addressed in the overall context of the patient’s care plan while also highlighting other patterns of abuse. The FDB opioid drug knowledge is a key component for us in providing this unique service for our customers."

"We are thrilled that DrFirst recognizes the value of our latest drug knowledge to identify risks for prescribers of opioids and is deploying it to their customer base in the state of Nebraska," said George Robinson, senior product manager, FDB. "All of us in healthcare need to do our part to address the opioid crisis. For us at FDB, that means providing decision support in the prescribing workflow that makes it easy for clinicians to safely prescribe pain medications while at the same time protect patients by minimizing overdose risk, addiction and accidental death through the concurrent use of opioids."

The Opioid Risk Management Module is the latest component in an evolving suite of FDB solutions that address opioid medication risk. Building upon existing FDB Medicare Part D Module data capabilities, the Opioid Risk Management Module is designed to support successful opioid risk management strategies deployable within order entry and prescribing workflows. Primary use cases include prescribing, prescription dispensing, regulatory compliance and risk assessment.

About DrFirst

DrFirst, the nation’s leading provider of ePrescribing and medication management solutions, enables stakeholders across the healthcare industry to intelligently utilize comprehensive real-time data and connectivity to increase their patient safety ratings, efficiency and profitability. Today, over 170,000 healthcare professionals and over 60% of Electronic Health Record vendors, depend on DrFirst’s innovative software solutions to improve clinical workflows, expedite secure collaboration across a patient’s care team and drive better health outcomes. The company’s integrated technologies include its award-winning electronic prescribing platform, the most comprehensive medication history available, clinically specialized secure messaging, as well as patient medication adherence monitoring and benefits checking. In addition, DrFirst was the first to offer e-prescribing for controlled substances (EPCS), and is considered the industry standard for providers nationwide. For more information, please visit www.drfirst.com or connect with us @DrFirst.

About First Databank

FDB is the leading provider of drug and medical device knowledge that helps healthcare professionals make precise decisions. With thousands of customers worldwide, FDB enables our information system developer partners to deliver valuable, useful, and differentiated solutions. We offer more than three decades of experience in transforming medical knowledge into actionable, targeted, and effective solutions that help improve patient safety, operational efficiency, and healthcare outcomes. For a complete look at our solutions and services, please visit www.fdbhealth.com or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Hearst Health

The Hearst Health network includes FDB (First Databank), Zynx Health, MCG, Homecare Homebase, MedHOK, Hearst Health Ventures and the Hearst Health Innovation Lab(www.hearsthealth.com). Hearst also holds a minority interest in the precision medicine and oncology analytics company M2Gen. The mission of Hearst Health is to help guide the most important care moments by delivering vital information into the hands of everyone who touches a person’s health journey. Each year in the U.S., care guidance from Hearst Health reaches 85 percent of discharged patients, 205 million insured individuals, 70 million home health visits and 3.2 billion dispensed prescriptions.

©2018 First Databank, Inc. Part of the Hearst Health network. All trademarks mentioned herein are the properties of their respective owners.

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