SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FDB (First Databank), the leading provider of clinical drug knowledge that helps improve medication-related decisions and patient outcomes, today announced it has released FDB OrderKnowledge® Canada, a pre-built medication ordering drug knowledge base specifically designed to help make computerized provider order entry (CPOE) applications more intuitive and user-friendly.
Although there has been significant federal investment since 2001 to spur electronic health record (EHR) adoption across Canada, deployment of CPOE applications is still relatively low. Many CPOE solutions have encountered barriers to success in large part due to issues of system usability, especially with drug ordering. Physicians are reluctant to use CPOE solutions due to awkward user interfaces, increased ordering time, decreased interaction with patients and nurses, and a lack of integration into their workflow.
Now, with more widespread adoption of EHR systems across Canada, the widely-reported safety benefits of CPOE and e-prescribing can now be realized. With FDB OrderKnowledge Canada, clinicians are able to specify patient-specific medication orders quickly and easily because this drug knowledge is specifically designed to meet the unique challenges of CPOE with built-in drug concepts and identifiers that optimize system functionality and navigation capabilities. Organizations will also save tremendous amounts of time and money by cutting back on the thousands of staff hours required to prep general-purpose medication orders to work within their CPOE system.
“Building the medication ordering content that supports CPOE applications is a significant task for CPOE implementers, whether or not they build a homegrown system or purchase one from a vendor," said Lisa Geller, senior product manager, FDB. "Without an infrastructure and content collection process in place, it's extremely difficult to research and rigorously test the content efficiently in a clinical environment,” she continued. “With OrderKnowledge, FDB’s dedicated team of clinical pharmacists and quality management professionals do the research and testing to ensure CPOE success."
In addition, FDB OrderKnowledge Canada helps to promote better outcomes by providing validated dose and frequency selections for a particular drug. It promotes the concept of pre-built "orderable medications" that enable clinicians to arrive at their order in the fewest possible steps, an identified need of many CPOE system users. The content also supports dose adjustments for organ impairment, mg/kg calculations and rounding for final doses, IV to PO conversions, and pediatric and discharge orders.
With OrderKnowledge Canada, clinicians are guided to a constrained list of patient-appropriate orders instead of the more common “dead-end” workflow where the clinician spends time creating a medication order only to receive a safety warning at the end that causes the clinician to start over. This helps minimize alert fatigue, a problem too often associated with clinical decision support.
"In fact, because OrderKnowledge links to other FDB drug concepts, users gain another advantage which is the ability to make full use of FDB clinical decision support," said Geller. “The linkage of order-related content to downstream uses for pharmacy and quality data management is a critical linchpin in the provision of a closed-loop solution for medication management."
“Our US customers have realized significant medication safety benefits by deploying FDB OrderKnowledge content within their CPOE and EHR systems,” said Chuck Tuchinda, MD, MBA, president, FDB. “We are pleased to now make this valuable clinical decision support content available to our Canadian customers and to expand the market as CPOE adoption continues to progress across the country.”
About First Databank (FDB)
FDB (First Databank), part of the Hearst Health network, is the leading provider of drug knowledge that helps healthcare professionals make precise medication-related decisions. With thousands of customers worldwide, FDB enables our information system developer partners to deliver a wide range of valuable, useful, and differentiated solutions. As the company that virtually launched the medication decision support category, we offer more than three decades of experience in transforming drug knowledge into actionable, targeted, and effective solutions that improve patient safety 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
FDB is part of the Hearst Health network, which also includes Zynx Health, MCG and Homecare Homebase, and Hearst Health International. The mission of the Hearst Health network 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 the Hearst Health network reaches 84 percent of discharged patients, 174 million insured individuals, 41 million home health visits, and 4 billion prescriptions. Extensions of the Hearst Health network include Hearst Health Ventures and the Hearst Health Innovation Lab. www.hearsthealth.com
© 2016 First Databank, Inc. Part of the Hearst Health network. All trademarks mentioned herein are the properties of their respective owners.
