Drug Monitoring Caught in Technical Backwater

With prescription drug abuse running rampant in the U.S., efforts have been made from several directions to confront and overcome the problem. One of the most promising methods is the introduction of real-time prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs).

These programs would use the Internet to keep track of patient drug prescriptions so that physicians and pharmacists could recognize a problem and avoid supporting that problem. Recently a report was made to the nation’s Office of Healthcare and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). According to the report, drug monitoring programs still have a few bugs that need working out.

Today, 43 states have drug monitoring programs in place. Six more states have passed legislation supporting PDMP’s, but have yet to get those programs up and running. In the meantime, the report has uncovered several flaws in current programs and made a few suggestions for rectifying them. A healthcare article appearing online last month, outlined the weaknesses and possible solutions.

Problems with current monitoring systems include:

• Information is not easily shared across state borders
• Information is not easily accessed by the physician or pharmacist because the data is not part of normal workflows
• Support staff cannot access information
• Only a small percentage of doctors and pharmacists are utilizing the programs either because they are unfamiliar with the system or because the information is not up-to-date.

According to the report, technology upgrades and standardization would greatly improve the usefulness of PDMP’s for the following reasons:

• Make it mandatory for users to register in order to log into information
• Improve systems interoperability
• Implement integration of information between medical electronic health records, pharmacy programs and PDMPs
• Standardize the reporting

These do not seem like insuperable obstacles to what promises to be a great tool in defeating prescription drug abuse here. With a little technical upgrading and a bit more public relations, doctors and pharmacists could once again feel safe in prescribing patients their needed drugs.