SAN MATEO, CALIF., August 8, 2006
Epocrates Helps Industry Address Patient Safety Needs
Company Increases Access to Critical Safety Information for FDA-Approved Drugs
More than 1.5 million Americans are injured by drug errors yearly and at least a quarter of them are preventable, according to a recent report issued by the Institute of Medicine. To help clinicians prescribe more safely, Epocrates Inc. today announced the addition of new safety and monitoring sections to its mobile drug reference guide. The new sections highlight black box warnings, as well as other safety and monitoring information, for the more than 500,000 healthcare professionals in the Epocrates network.
“FDA MedWatch is committed to providing clinically useful drug safety information – important new prescribing information, recalls and medication error alerts – to doctors and other healthcare professionals at the point of care. By partnering with companies such as Epocrates, we know that this safety and monitoring information will be available to doctors and patients when they sit down to make important decisions about the use of therapeutic and diagnostic products regulated by FDA,” said Norman Marks, MD, medical director of the FDA’s MedWatch program.
Epocrates now prominently displays black box warning information, which is the FDA’s most severe drug-associated warning, throughout its application. The FDA requires black box warnings for some medications that present a significant risk of serious or life-threatening adverse effects. The public visibility of these warnings has significantly increased in the last 18 months, as several blockbuster drugs for depression and pain management have now been required to include such warnings in their prescribing information.
Epocrates also added a new safety and monitoring section that includes information on monitoring parameters, common for drug classes such as cardiovascular, psychiatric and neurologic agents. Physicians review monitoring parameters including laboratory test results, vital signs and physical findings to identify potentially harmful effects of medications. By identifying issues early in drug therapy, physicians can reduce the risk of injury related to adverse drug events. Another new section, pharmacology, provides information on drug metabolism, excretion, class and mechanism of action to help physicians better understand the properties and actions of the drugs they are prescribing.
“The Institute of Medicine recommends that physicians check every drug a patient is on before prescribing a new one. This is why it is vital for clinicians to have safety and monitoring information, such as severe warnings, contraindicated patient populations, and guidelines for high-risk drug therapies, readily available,” said Michael R. Cohen, RPh, MS, ScD, president of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices. “I believe applications like Epocrates are even more essential to clinicians’ daily practice by presenting this important information at the point of care – when it is needed most.”
“We believe the accessibility of safety data helps reduce medical errors and empowers clinicians to make better informed prescribing decisions,” said Kirk Loevner, Epocrates chairman and CEO. “We are committed to making this information readily available to clinicians, and are committed to working with the FDA, ISMP, and most importantly our users, to continue to refine and improve our products and services.”
Epocrates’ medical editors use FDA-approved prescribing information, primary medical literature and evidence-based medicine guidelines to identify and provide clinically relevant content that healthcare providers need to make more informed decisions. The new sections have been designed to provide new safety data as well as improve accessibility to existing content. All healthcare professionals can have immediate access to drug safety, dosing and cost information by downloading the free Epocrates Rx drug application.
CONTACT: Erica Sniad Morgenstern Epocrates Public Relations PHONE: (650) 227-6907 E-MAIL: pr@epocrates.com WEB: www.epocrates.com