Increasing Precision, Increasing Value
At FDB, we’ve been at the forefront of medicine optimisation for over 40 years. Our team understand – many of them first-hand from their years of clinical experience – that limited resources, intense cost pressures, drug shortages and wastage are not new problems for the NHS. They are, however, issues that are more pressing than ever before.
That’s why we’re committed to enhancing OptimiseRx even further, to ensure primary care teams are best equipped to deal with priorities such as preventable medication harm due to problematic polypharmacy, improving respiratory outcomes, tackling antimicrobial resistance and reducing waste – all while continuing to support best practice and facilitate cost-effective prescribing when possible.
We’re updating our tooling to increase alignment with your decision-making, monitoring and reporting needs for initiatives such as the RPS Repeat Prescribing Toolkit and the National Medicines Optimisation Opportunities.
How are we doing this?
Ultimately, it’s all in the precision of our content. With full access to all coded information in the patient record, OptimiseRx ensures that the guidance presented at the point of prescribing is as targeted as possible. Messages are only presented to clinicians when relevant to the individual patient and prescribing event. By enhancing how we can utilise data from the patient record in new and unique ways we can offer prescribers even more precise insights to inform better decisions.
What does this mean for OptimiseRx users?
For example, soon we will be able to count the number of drugs a patient is on so you can prevent at-risk patients from being escalated onto multiple drugs that could increase the risk of falls, bleeds and acute kidney injury. By doing so, we can help prevent problematic polypharmacy while encouraging de-prescribing in patients who are already experiencing it. This reduces avoidable hospital admissions as well reducing costs and wastage from medicines that are not benefiting the patient.
We will also be able to count codes, conditions and drug issues so you can ensure that patients with asthma or COPD who are over-reliant on SABA inhalers or rescue packs, or those who have frequent exacerbations are optimised in a timely manner - reducing hospital admissions and environmental impact of the wider carbon footprint associated with poor respiratory control.
Our ability to count medications will also help you in managing drug dependence and withdrawal – a key focus for the NHS called out across multiple national imperatives. For example, you’ll be able to target patients receiving multiple opioids, as well as multiple psychotropics such as benzodiazepines and antidepressants.
We’re even working on new functionality so that you benefit from targeted messages that automatically detect the cumulative total anticholinergic burden (ACB) or anticholinergic effect on cognition (AEC). As a result, prescribers can avoid prescribing highly anticholinergic drugs in elderly or frail patients who already have a high or borderline total anticholinergic burden.
When will users start to benefit?
This is an ongoing priority for us, so you’ll start seeing benefits across OptimiseRx over the next 9-months. This allows us to get your feedback and use it to continue developing OptimiseRx to suit your needs.
We’re starting with the ability to count medications so look out for updates on how and when you can benefit. We are keen to hear how we can better support you so please reach out to your Clinical Account Managers if you would like to help shape this enhancement or would like to be the first to use it as part of a trial.
We’re confident that these new developments will give you the support you need to tackle key items on the medicines optimisation agenda, and we look forward to sharing more information soon.
