Lehigh Valley Health Network Goes Live With FDB’s Targeted Pharmacogenomic Medication Decision Support

FDB (First Databank, Inc.), the leading provider of drug and medical device knowledge that helps healthcare professionals make precise decisions, announced that Lehigh Valley Health Network has moved from a pilot to a live environment with targeted pharmacogenomic medication decision support. FDB Targeted Medication Warnings, launched earlier this year, are designed to reduce the significant alert burden placed on clinicians by leveraging patient-specific, contextual clinical information within the electronic health record (EHR).

Lehigh Valley’s initial focus for its pharmacogenomic program is on high-risk, low volume use cases, such as abacavir and the HLA-B*5701 genetic marker, to prevent a potentially life-threatening hypersensitivity reaction. Lehigh Valley partnered with FDB to deploy pharmacogenomic decision support to implement alerts for this and other clinical use cases, with minimal implementation and maintenance requirements and without the need for additional EHR development.

Medication decision support within healthcare IT systems has traditionally been limited due to the lack of access to broader patient information, so knowledge bases and IT systems could only consider the drug without important patient context. Integrating patient record information enables these systems to be more specific and targeted and to take a “patient first” approach. The benefits are significant because as medication decision support incorporates more patient context, such as lab values and clinical risk scores, it becomes more meaningful and more likely to be acted upon, ultimately leading to improved clinical outcomes.

“Our partnership with FDB to deploy this new approach to medication decision support enables our system to leverage a broader set of clinical tools and contextual information so that our clinicians can make the best possible prescribing decisions,” said Donald Levick, MD, MBA, CMIO, Lehigh Valley Health Network. “We’re excited to take the next step forward in clinical care with targeted medication warnings that focus initially on pharmacogenomics and high-risk clinical scenarios, providing our clinicians with more targeted and actionable medication decision support.”

“We are thrilled that the team at Lehigh Valley recognizes the value of our newest approach to medication decision support that seeks to create truly actionable and meaningful clinical guidance in the workflow,” said Chuck Tuchinda, MD, MBA, executive vice president, Hearst Health and president, FDB. “Our goal is to provide medication guidance that is actionable, targeted and patient-specific, and to ensure it becomes meaningful and actionable for clinicians, ultimately leading to enhanced patient care and improved clinical outcomes.”

The new targeted medication decision support from FDB focuses on high-risk clinical scenarios such as hyperkalemia, QT prolongation, opioid use, and pharmacogenomics. Patient-specific information, such as lab values and clinical risk assessments, are pulled into the medication guidance to provide actionable information at the appropriate time in the workflow. Traditional medication alerts that do not apply will be demoted when Targeted Medication Warnings are “turned on” in the EHR, so that end users are provided with fewer and more targeted alerts instead of numerous alerts that are less clinically relevant.

Currently available for Epic health system customers, FDB Targeted Medication Warnings will also integrate with other technology solution providers in the coming months. – Business Wire