Sunday, April 06, 2008
Research
COLUMBIA, MD - Feb. 21, 2007 - Resolution Health, Inc. (RHI), a leading provider of targeted member and physician messaging services based on analysis of patient-centric data, today announced the launch of RxSafety Alerts, a state-of-the-art drug-safety program that alerts physicians on a daily basis about potentially dangerous drug-drug and drug-disease interactions, as well as about abnormal lab results that may indicate a need to adjust drug use and dosing.
RxSafety Alerts, which is offered to health plans and large employers, analyzes nightly prescription drug claim feeds from PBMs in conjunction with historical medical service and prescription drug claims, as well as laboratory test results for particular patients. When RHI identifies a significant risk of a potentially serious adverse drug reaction, RHI sends an electronic alert to a nurse or pharmacist, who then contacts the prescribing physician(s) or the member, if a physician cannot be reached, regarding the drug safety issue.
According to Earl P. Steinberg, MD, MPP, President and CEO of RHI, and Adjunct Professor of Medicine and of Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins University, "RHI has designed RxSafety Alerts to be the best drug-safety program available. By analyzing prescription drug claims on a daily basis in conjunction with medical claims and lab test results, we are able to identify not only potentially dangerous drug-drug interactions, but also potentially dangerous drug-condition interactions and drug doses that are too high given a patient's kidney function."
Numerous studies have found that avoidable adverse drug reactions occur commonly, resulting in substantial morbidity, mortality and expense. Many of those adverse drug reactions are the result of multiple physicians caring for a patient simultaneously without a reliable means of sharing information with each other.
"By combining multiple types of data with the power of computer technology and sophisticated medical informatics techniques, RxSafety Alerts helps physicians safeguard patients against inadvertent risks that result from physicians' lack of access to all the available information regarding a patient without pestering physicians with nuisance phone calls," says Dr. Steinberg, a national expert in outcomes research and quality of care.
RxSafety Alerts was launched in January 2007. The first RxSafety Alerts customer is WellPoint, the largest health plan in the United States. "We are delighted to be the first health plan to provide RHI's RxSafety Alerts to our customers," says Samuel R. Nussbaum, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of WellPoint. "WellPoint's use of RHI's RxSafety Alerts illustrates our commitment to using best of breed solutions. By combining RHI's expertise in data analysis with the outreach capabilities of Health Management Corp., our integrated health and care management subsidiary, we are able to offer what we believe is the best drug-safety program in the industry."
RHI provides highly targeted patient and physician communications that are based upon evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. The introduction of RxSafety Alerts expands RHI's suite of services that help health plans and employers reduce health care costs and improve health care quality and safety. Other RHI services include:
Care Monitoring System(tm) sends patient-specific alerts to physicians regarding more than 250 clinical issues relating to more than 30 diseases and conditions, as well as health maintenance and disease prevention issues.
Personal Care Note(r), a personal health care statement sent to health plan members that contains actionable suggestions regarding what a member can do to improve the quality of their health care, reduce their out-of-pocket expenses, and take better advantage of their health care benefits;
RxPCN(tm), a personalized statement sent to a health plan member that focuses on specific suggestions a member should consider to reduce their out of pocket drug expenses and improve the safety and effectiveness of the prescription drugs they use. RxPCN can be provided when only prescription drug claims for the member are available;
Personal Health Note(tm), a personalized communication for members that features customized health improvement and wellness messages based on age, gender, and member reported data, such as that collected using health risk appraisals.