Cary firm deploys a potential ‘game-changer’ in opioid crisis: automated prescription monitoring

CARY – Smartlink Health Solutions has worked with Piedmont HealthCare to deploy its first automated, bidirectional process for checking state prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) databases – a potential “game-changer” in the fight against opioid abuse, say some experts.

Smartlink Health Solutions, focused on developing “smart, disruptive solutions that improve health outcomes,” has automated the process of checking state prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) databases, which track all controlled-substance prescriptions, with its technology, Smartlink Data Connector.

The firm said physician practices struggling to comply with state government restrictions on opioid prescriptions now have an easy means of satisfying the requirements designed to prevent overdoses and drug misuse.

Piedmont HealthCare, one of the largest physician-owned and directed multi-specialty groups in the Southeast, including 50 clinics and 200 physicians, is the first clinic to utilize Smartlink Data Connector to integrate with the North Carolina PDMP reporting system.

The group said it has achieved improved compliance with state law, enhanced administrative efficiency, and “virtually eliminated the risk of human error.” Automating the PDMP database check process also allowed the clinic to cut its paper consumption by one-third, reducing reliance on printed patient information and improving HIPAA compliance in the process, it said in its release.

“Smartlink Data Connector is a huge win for our physicians, especially for our pain clinics,” said Mike House, chief information officer of Piedmont HealthCare. “We’ve completely eliminated the potential for keying errors and bypassed the need for a staff person to manually check the PDMP database for our scheduled patients.”

Surveys indicate prescribers often ignore the requirement to check PDMP databases before prescribing opioids or other controlled substances because the process is inefficient and the cost to integrate their Electronic Health Record (EHR) with the PDMP reporting system through traditional mechanisms is too costly.

Using Smartlink Data Connector, Piedmont HealthCare said it has affordably streamlined the process by auto-checking the state PDMP reporting system based on that day’s patient schedule and delivering actionable data back into the clinical workflow, without the need for human intervention. Prescribers access the PDMP risk score and patient report within their EHR during the patient visit and can quickly make an informed prescribing decision.

“The fact that this technology is able to automate complicated clinical and administrative workflows without going the traditional integration route is incredibly promising,” said House. “The time and money it would have taken us to achieve this via four distinct system integrations would definitely not have been worth it.”

The next generation in healthcare data exchange

Smartlink Data Connector is the 3rd generation brain child of Smartlink’s CEO, Siu Tong, PhD.

Previous generations of the technology have been deployed by 500 global companies across multiple industries and used to link tens of thousands of complex systems.

“Piedmont HealthCare is a great example of where Smartlink Data Connector really shines,” Tong said in a statement. “Traditional interface methods work well with heavy data loads, but there are many situations where traditional database interfaces are overkill from a time and cost standpoint. By contrast, our solution is lightweight, has a very fast implementation, and is particularly good when considering the amount of effort compared to the amount of data. Using the standard approaches for this use case would be like killing a mosquito with a cannon. I’m excited the solution is both freeing up valuable time at the clinic level and playing a part in combating the opioid epidemic.”