CMS has released the Stage 1 meaningful use criteria for public comment. The criteria are established to qualify providers for incentives for implementation of EHRs. The criteria are focused on improving quality and coordination of care and on streamlining administration of claims processing. There are 25 Stage 1 measures.
The Adheretx Profiler, View and Manager collects drug therapy data, demographic data and therapy risk factors as structured data which will help providers and EMR vendors achieve several of these measures including:
Implement drug-drug, drug-allergy, drug- formulary checks
Using web and mobile based motivational interview techniques The Adheretx View module collects as structured data a complete list of Rx, OTC and Supplement therapies the patient is using and can collect information on allergies enabling the provider or the EMR vendor to achieve this criteria. The Adheretx rule set identifies potential problems that could result in drug induced illnesses such as adverse reactions or patients who are at risk for degraded therapy.
Maintain active medication list.
As with the prior critera, the Adheretx View module is designed to collect as structured data a complete list of Rx, OTC and Supplement therapies which can populate the EMR using HL7 formats.
Maintain active medication allergy list.
Using web and mobile based motivational interview techniques The Adheretx View module can collect self reported information on allergies as structured data.
Record demographics.
Adheretx View collects demographic data as structured data which can be loaded into the EMR.
Record and chart changes in vital signs.
Adheretx View collects self reported biometric data via the web or mobile or via Continua compliant devices and stores as structured data.
Send reminders to patients per patient preference for preventive/ follow-up care
The Adhertx Manager enables self management of chronic disease therapy remotely enabling the provider a continuous view of patient adherence, compliance and allows monitoring of the results of therapy. Gaps in care, adverse drug events or degraded therapy can be immediately recognized by the provider who can intervene.
Capability to exchange key clinical information (for example, problem list, medication list, allergies, and diagnostic test results), among providers of care and patient authorized entities electronically.
Adheretx uses HL7 standards to store and communicate data enabling integration with HIEs.
Perform medication reconciliation at relevant encounters and each transition of care.
Adheretx collects and stores a complete list of Rx, OTC and Nutritional Supplements enabling a complete reconciliation at care transition points.
A recent article from Heath Care IT News (http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/two-providers-drive-patient-compliance-hit) describes how physicians are using messaging to patients to improve compliance. The application is designed to get patients back in the office for follow-up or additional services. While messaging may improve compliance it may also add unnecessary additional provider office visit costs. A better solution for chronic care management is to enable patients to self manage their care and to enable care tracking tools that alert providers when patients are non compliant or are at risk for degraded therapeutic results or dangerous interactions. Tools such as those provided by Adheretx enable self management while keeping the provider in the loop. This approach has the dual benefit of allowing providers to focus their resources on patients who most need care without adding additional cost to the system and it supports and enables patients to learn to manage their own therapies.
In December 2008, JAMA published a study on the Use of Prescriptions and Over-the-Counter Medication and Dietary Supplements Among Older Adults in the US. They concluded that concurrent use of prescription medications and OTC medications and supplements represent a significant health risk in the US and may be significantly increasing health care costs. The study found that 68% of older adults using prescription medications use five or more OTC medications and/or supplements and over half of major drug to drug interactions are due to OTC medications and supplements.
Increasing rates of chronic disease and polypharmacy, and increasing use of over-the-counter and nutritional supplements are adding significant but avoidable costs to the health care system through increased potential for therapy interference and increased potential for adverse drug reactions. Over 175,000 ER visits each year among older adults are due to adverse drug reactions. Other articles suggest that 80% of drug side effects are treated with additional medications. Providers often have little or no visibility on their patients OTC and nutritional supplement therapies. Consumer tools such as Adheretx, which continuously provide visibility to these therapies can enable patients and providers to identify potentially unsafe concurrent therapies and avoid these costs.
Rates of chronic disease and polypharmacy are increasing dramatically leading to significant but avoidable increases in health care costs. Some data suggests that 40% of hospital admissions are due to drug induced illnesses and half of these admissions are due to adverse interactions from OTCs. Annually, about 175,000 ER admissions are due to adverse reactions to medications. Frequent provider directed medication reviews can avoid some of these costs yet a recent article titles “How Do Physicians Conduct Medication Reviews” from the Journal of General Internal Medicine (http://www.springerlink.com/content/k25wt00837hh4811/fulltext.pdf) concludes that Comprehensive discussions about chronic medications are uncommon in routine practice occurring in about 32% of office visits. Better consumer tools, such as Adheretx, which enable patients to keep an inventory of the therapies both Rx and OTC that they are on and for communicating these therapies to their providers could facilitate more frequent, meaningful medication reviews and avoid some of these costs.
by admin on October 7, 2009
AdhereTx Corp provides web-based, intelligent monitoring and management solutions to improve the response to therapy in patients with chronic conditions including hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other disease states. The solution captures, makes sense of, and uses observations of daily living and biometric data from patients to optimize interaction between patient and provider and achieve goals for treatment.
