Combatting the opioid epidemic has lengthy been an HHS precedence, and the division supplies sources and technical help to states, well being care suppliers, and different events to help of their efforts to handle the disaster. ONC helps handle the opioid epidemic by way of its assist for the adoption of well being IT and promotion of nationwide well being data change, together with by way of alternatives created by prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs). The importance of this work is clear, as some states and territories have leveraged their PDMPs to assist handle challenges associated to the COVID-19 pandemic by way of the enlargement of system capabilities. Nebraska is one such state, which we highlight beneath, that has efficiently leveraged its PDMP through the pandemic to handle complicated issues.
Nebraska an early adopter of PDMPs
Nebraska was the primary state to trace all disbursed pharmaceuticals, offering probably the most complete medicine historical past for the state and supplying suppliers with a worthwhile device to help them in making higher knowledgeable choices for affected person care and security. This whole view of a affected person’s prescription historical past may help to scale back medicine errors and allows the state to establish early tendencies in prescribing for sure ailments.
Nebraska used its present PDMP infrastructure and expanded its capabilities to gather and report medicines past the standard managed substances that different states report. CyncHealth (Nebraska’s statewide HIE, which supplies the HIE platform upon which the PDMP is housed) was ready to make use of the huge information throughout the Nebraska PDMP to establish sufferers on prescriptions sometimes used to deal with power ailments or medicines that might suppress the immune system, all of which may point out threat components for COVID-19. This data was supplied to the Nebraska Division of Well being and Human Providers (DHHS).
CyncHealth labored with the Nebraska DHHS to plan a undertaking, utilizing public well being information on sufferers with COVID-19, to seek for correlations of concomitant medicines which may impression morbidity or mortality charges related to the sickness. Nebraska continues to concentrate on utilizing its PDMP, in addition to CyncHealth, for affected person security and inhabitants well being tasks to know, and in the end enhance, affected person care. Nebraska DHHS and CyncHealth proceed to set an instance of the nice successes that may be achieved by way of collaboration between the PDMP, HIE, and state public well being company.
ONC Initiatives Supporting PDMP Use
A number of ONC sources and tasks can be found to assist PDMP adoption and use. ONC developed a report—Leveraging PDMPs and Health IT for Addressing Substance Use Disorder and Opioid Use Disorder (LPASO)—to look at ways in which PDMP insurance policies and know-how can assist substance and opioid misuse identification, prevention, and remedy in states and territories. This useful resource presents data on the standing of PDMPs and well being IT actions throughout the nation.
By way of the LPASO work, ONC supported the event of a toolkit, State Methods to Enhance the Use of Prescription Drug Monitoring Applications to Handle Opioid and Different Substance Use Dysfunctions. The toolkit highlights state PDMP insurance policies and identifies alternatives to enhance entry to and ease of use of PDMP data by well being care suppliers. Each LPASO and the toolkit are worthwhile sources for states and different stakeholders which are contemplating methods for advancing their PDMP insurance policies and know-how.
Further Assets
Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs Overview
