Louisville, KY, Feb. 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Appriss Health, provider of the most comprehensive platform for substance use disorder (SUD) in the U.S., today announced a successful pilot that integrated Indiana’s prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) information and NarxCare, an advanced analytics and patient support solution, into ClariCare, a dental practice management platform, at Blue River Dental in Shelbyville, Indiana, to enable instant access to information, analytics, tools, and resources within workflow to help dentists identify, prevent, and manage SUD.
In August 2017, Indiana announced a state-sponsored initiative and made available a statewide, comprehensive platform for healthcare professionals to review patients' controlled substance prescription histories more quickly and efficiently at the point of care to aid in appropriate and safe prescribing and dispensing practices. This platform, Appriss Health’s PMP Gateway, integrates the Indiana Scheduled Prescription Electronic Collection and Tracking (INSPECT) system directly into electronic health record (EHR) and pharmacy management systems, and now via ClariCare, to help serve the dental market.
NarxCare, an advanced SUD platform from Appriss Health, is available in addition to the Indiana state-sponsored initiative and aggregates and analyzes prescription drug data and presents visual, interactive information as well as advanced analytic insights, complex risk scores, and more to help physicians, pharmacists, and care teams with clinical decision support. NarxCare also provides tools and resources that support patients’ needs and connect them to treatment, if necessary.
Recent research has concluded that dentists write 12% of all prescriptions for immediate-release opioids. The dental space, with its nearly 200,000 dentists in the U.S., is vulnerable to patients who abuse controlled substances, as most practices are small and independent, with virtually no insight into a patients’ prior medical or prescription history. While primary care physicians (PCPs) prescribe the majority of opioids, dentists prescribe them at a higher rate than do PCPs and are the second highest prescribers of opioids, overall, according to research.
For Carrie Pumphrey, DDS with Blue River Dental, the integrated and automated delivery of PDMP information and NarxCare analytics has changed the way she practices dentistry. ClariCare makes this information available directly in her dental clinical workflow, whereas previously, a dentist would have needed to log in to a separate website and search to retrieve a patient’s controlled substance history from INSPECT, and then cross-reference that data with a patient’s health information in disparate systems. Dr. Pumphrey believes that this integrated dental solution will continue to improve the access to, and transparency of, this vital information to help identify patients that may be at risk for prescription drug addiction, overdose and death.
“To be frank, I think dentistry hasn’t placed quite the same emphasis on prescription drug monitoring as, say, large health systems do. I was aware of the PDMP portal, but it wasn’t something that was top of mind for me, and certainly, I feel my colleagues and contemporaries would agree,” said Dr. Pumphrey, a Cofounder of ClariCare and owner of Blue River Dental. “I have heard whispers about legislation that could place additional burdens on prescribers, but I had more questions than answers. There’s no denying that compliance is an enormous incentive to check INSPECT prior to prescribing, and ClariCare automates that step. However, and importantly, as a member of the Shelbyville community, I see this as doing my part to help address the growing opioid crisis at the local level.”
Patrick Malloy, President and Cofounder of ClariCare added, “We value providing our customers with point-of-care solutions to help them deliver great care to patients as well as tools to help them grow their practices. However, the more we read about the mounting, nationwide opioid epidemic crisis, the more we knew we had to be on the leading edge of bringing prescription drug monitoring data and analytics to the dental market. Many Americans are introduced to opioids in a dental office—getting their wisdom teeth removed, as an example. There just hasn’t been the awareness on this issue in the dental space. We hope to change that by planting a stake in the ground today and offering a completely integrated, automated, easy-to-use solution that empowers clinical decision making for dentists—a solution that offers objective insights into potential drug misuse or abuse, so that patients can be provided with the care they need.”
“We commend ClariCare’s commitment to leading the way on the integration of NarxCare into their dental practice management solution,” said Rob Cohen, President, Appriss Health. “And, we are proud to partner with INSPECT and ClariCare to deliver the clinical integration of PDMP data and clinical decision support solutions for SUD within dental practice management systems.”
To access the application to integrate an Indiana healthcare organization with INSPECT, please visit the INSPECT Integration Initiative page on the IPLA website at https://www.in.gov/pla/inspect.
NarxCare is an advanced analytics, tools, and resources platform that helps care teams address SUD and improve patient outcomes.
About ClariCare
ClariCare, Inc., is a technology platform specialized for the dental market that offers integrated solutions including an analytics suite, workflow tools to optimize staff performance, rich patient engagement, and other point-of-care solutions. With ClariCare, dental offices improve efficiency and drive production. ClariCare takes a data-centric approach to integration with back-end practice management systems, and then delivers elegant applications to the practices to improve many of the most critical functions in a dental office. For more information, please visit www.claricare.com.
About Appriss Health
Appriss Health provides the nation's most comprehensive platform for early identification, prevention, and management of SUD. We provide state government agencies with the most advanced repository of controlled substance dispensing data and deliver real-time clinical decision support, critical insights, and interventions to physicians, pharmacists, and care team members. Our solutions help prescribers and dispensers assess and manage clinical risk by providing access to critical information at the point of care for hundreds of millions of patient encounters each year. Appriss Health provides the platform for PDMPs and access to non-PDMP data, analytics, tools, and resources from PDMPs, across state lines, and integrated within care team workflows. Sharing #knowledgeforgood, our solutions are improving patient safety and outcomes. For more information, please visit www.apprisshealth.com.
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