Prescriptive Thinking – the Prescription Advisory Blog
Our thoughts on the evolving prescription monitoring landscape.
Opioids and malpractice risks
Medscape's Robert Lowes recently published an article detailing opioids' prominent role in medication malpractice claims. Much of the press around the opioid crisis covers the deaths, hospitalizations, and substance use disorder problems. All of these can lead to...
Maps and Data Visualization help tell opioid epidemic
Route 50 talks about the importance of maps in telling the story of the opioid epidemic and how it can help public officials in particular drive home the point. Sometimes a picture is worth far more than 1,000 words. One of the challenges I see is the huge amount of...
Alabama Board of Medical Examiners cites PDMP history in complaint
Here is an example of the Board of Medical Examiners using PDMP history in the complaint process resulting in the practice shutting down. The record of PDMP checks is there, and a few states are starting to look at their mandated use requirements and the gaps between...
Opioid recipients often use multiple prescribers
BMJ recently published an analysis of opioid prescribing among Medicare patients -"Opioid prescribering by multiple providers in Medicare: retrospective observational study of insurance claims". A couple of things jumped out: Just over two thirds of opioid recipients...
1 in 7 patients expected to have substance use disorder
Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, our Surgeon General, recently released a report that, among other things, highlights the gap between the widespread substance use disorder problems the country faces and the relatively small amount of abuse treatment. Here's an excerpt from the...
NJ and PMP – Prescriptive Thinking
Governor Chris Christie signed a bill on July 20th, 2015 requiring drug prescribers and pharmacists in NJ to register for the state’s Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) and to check the PMP when prescribing controlled substances. “We’re not only...
Pain Patients are not all Degenerates
Two important articles have come out just in the past few days. Journal of the American Medical Association The first is a JAMA published article about opioid overdose. If I allow myself to do a substantial study the disservice of ultra-condensing its learnings, it...
Complicated Value Creation
Today I want to talk more about business, than about prescription drug abuse. In selling PastRx, we run into an issue. Prescribers understand how our system will protect their patients, and lead to better outcomes. They understand how it will protect them from the DEA...
The Origins of Prescription Advisory
Just over two years ago, I met with my old friend Dr. Frederic “Skip” Leeds. We were just catching up on what was happening in our lives, and with our families. Skip mentioned that he was working on something pretty interesting. In response to a growing problem with...