MOUNT PROSPECT, IL, July 12, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a crucial step to further enhance the public health and assist in the prevention of prescription drug misuse and abuse in St Louis County and other participating Missouri jurisdictions, the St Louis County Department of Public Health has signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy® (NABP®) to participate in the prescription monitoring program (PMP) data sharing system, NABP PMP InterConnect®.
Once St Louis County PMP becomes live in PMP InterConnect, it will join a network of 42 state PMPs exchanging data securely. Maine and Pennsylvania are the most recent states that have gone live and began exchanging data.
“We are pleased that St Louis County is joining our nationally-reaching PMP InterConnect system. Even more physicians and pharmacists will have prescription histories at their fingertips, and that type of secure data sharing will allow them to make more informed medical decisions that help combat the abuse of prescription drugs,” said NABP President Jeanne Waggener, RPh, DPh.
St Louis County launched its PMP in April, inviting other counties and local jurisdictions to participate in an initial rollout. Nine counties and several cities, including the city of St Louis, subscribed to the program. Additional counties and cities are anticipated to join in the coming months.
The St Louis County PMP precedes the implementation of a shared, statewide program. Missouri is the only state not tracking prescription drug use through a PMP in the United States.
NABP PMP InterConnect was designed to allow authorized health care professionals to obtain multi-state information about their patients’ controlled substance prescriptions. It is a secure communications exchange platform that facilitates the transmission of PMP data across state lines to authorized requestors, while ensuring that each state’s data-access rules are enforced.
PMP InterConnect currently processes more than 10 million requests and 18.5 million responses per month for consolidated multistate PMP reports. The system is available to states, free of charge, and can be used to identify trends so that problems with prescription drugs can be addressed early.
For more information about PMP InterConnect, visit the Initiatives section of the NABP website at www.nabp.pharmacy.
NABP is the independent, international, and impartial Association that assists its state member boards and jurisdictions for the purpose of protecting the public health.
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