If we look at the stats, the past two decades show increasing cases of drug overdose crises. US Department of Justice is observed to invest several hundred million dollars in handling prescription drug databases so that a vigilant eye can be maintained on the pharmaceutical market.

Almost every US state is now following one or two prescription drug monitoring programs. However, while working on series of government contracts and acquisitions, Appriss company has shown its dominance in the management of state prescription drug databases. Although registries followed for data management are balkanized to some extent, they are governed by their own set of requirements, quirks, and parameters. Appriss has made hard efforts over the years to make those registries interoperable while merging them to the national registry of prescription drugs. The company has now stepped ahead of just collecting and retrieving records with its high-end machine learning algorithms that can generate real-time insights from data.

Appriss has recently launched a flagship product to assist pharmacies, hospitals, and doctors; it is launched with the name – NarxCare. It is basically an analytics tool with a feature-rich care management unit that supports the entire mechanism by identifying risk factors for the respective patients. The system identifies the red flags in the state registries to know that someone is engaged in noticeable drug shopping behavior. It provides details about the number of pharmacies visited by the patient, distance traveled for availing health care service, and the specific combination of prescriptions received.

NarxCare also follows complex and advanced machine learning algorithms to assign a unique overdose risk score to every patient. Although it is not yet disclosed that what specific formula Appriss follows to assign this risk score to the patient, but as per the promotional material launched by the company, it may involve criminal justice data, EMS data, electronic health records and medical claims data. By using NarxCare, doctors can receive the detailed NarxCare report of the patient right on their screen just within few seconds, and it contains several data visualizations along with the prescription history of the person.

It is important to mention that NarxCare is never promoted as an alternative to the doctor’s diagnosis; rather, it provides necessary data elements that doctors can use with ease while monitoring and treating some patients. In most states, it is now a legal requirement to consult the Appriss database for pharmacists and physicians so that they can recommend controlled substances to the patient. In few states, federal and police law enforcement officers are also allowed to access relevant information to prosecute patients and doctors.

As the drug overuse cases in the United States are increasing with each passing day, feature-rich systems such as NarxCare can provide great support to the system. It can open doors to addiction management while avoiding abuse cases among young children. It can further assist in the timely treatment of health issues associated with the history of addiction, including schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Citation

https://www.wired.com/story/opioid-drug-addiction-algorithm-chronic-pain/?utm_source=digg