Hearst Health International announced that OptimiseRx has become the first solution to be procured by a federation of five London Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) under a new procurement framework from NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS). The appointment was announced by Simon Radcliffe, Head of UK Commercial Management, Hearst Health International.
More than 220 GP practices across North West London are now benefiting from OptimiseRx, patient-specific medicines optimisation software under a new prescribing decision support procurement framework from NHS SBS. NHS Central London, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Hounslow and West London CCGs have selected OptimiseRx as the solution of choice to enable better prescribing decision support through patient-specific care guidance.
"We wanted a solution that would enable our CCG to provide GPs with clinical information before a prescribing decision is made - which is why we selected OptimiseRx because of its ability to provide highly targeted guidance at the right time in the GP or prescriber's workflow" said Dr Tony Willis, Diabetes and IT Clinical Lead for Hammersmith and Fulham CCG. "Whilst reducing our prescribing spend is critical, our local medicines management agenda is all about improving clinical outcomes for our patients. Having a medicines optimisation solution that helps target specific patients based on clinical parameters in the GP record is crucial to us to, both to avoid overloading prescribers with inappropriate information and to improve prescribing safety."
Thomas Slater, Strategic Procurement Lead at NHS SBS commented, "This is a great example of a real NHS collaboration that will help the wider NHS make significant savings on an important technology needed across the country. The five CCGs with whom we have worked with are already reaping the benefits of supplier choice. Our newly launched framework allows the wider NHS to achieve best price, terms and wider market choice in the same way, without the need to conduct their own time consuming and expensive competitions."
OptimiseRx works by providing guidance messages within the GPs prescribing workflow. The messages are evidence-based and tailored to the individual patient record within EMIS Web and TPP SystmOne, enabling GPs to make optimal prescribing decisions that are clinically appropriate and cost-effective for the patient in consultation.
"We have seen an enormous shift in the requirements of CCGs and prescribing teams recently" Radcliffe said. "Purely switching to cheaper prescriptions is no longer a viable option; CCGs tell us that they want to support GPs to make prescribing decisions that are clinically appropriate and support in-year savings against prescribing budgets, too. The five CCGs across North West London are representative of the trend towards more outcome-based prescribing and we are delighted to be able to provide a solution to enable them to make more clinically appropriate and more cost-effective prescribing decisions."
OptimiseRx can now be procured through the Medicines Management Prescribing Decision Support Systems Framework (MMDSS).
About OptimiseRx
OptimiseRx is the UK's only medicines optimisation solution within primary care that provides prescribing decision support that is tailored to the individual patient medical record, ensuring that all recommendations presented to GPs are patient-specific.
OptimiseRx from First Databank Europe, is part of Hearst Health International's network of care guidance solutions.
About Hearst Health International
FDB (First Databank), Map of Medicine, Zynx Health and MCG comprise the Hearst Health network. The mission of the Hearst Health network is to help guide the most important care moments by delivering vital information into the hands of everyone who touches a person's health journey.
With over 100 people based in the UK, our team comprises both depth and diversity of industry knowledge and expertise including medical doctors, registered nurses, pharmacists and health informaticists, dedicated to serving the NHS. We have more than 30 years' experience of developing and implementing clinical decision support solutions with around 180 customers across CCGs, secondary care and community Trusts, as well as a significant number of community pharmacies and mental health Trusts.
About Hearst
Hearst is one of the nation's largest diversified media, information and services companies with more than 360 businesses. Its major interests include ownership in cable television networks such as A&E, HISTORY, Lifetime and ESPN; majority ownership of global ratings agency Fitch Group; Hearst Health, a group of medical information and services businesses; 30 television stations such as WCVB-TV in Boston and KCRA-TV in Sacramento, Calif., which reach a combined 19 percent of U.S. viewers; newspapers such as the Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle and Albany Times Union, more than 300 magazines around the world including Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s BAZAAR and Car and Driver; digital services businesses such as iCrossing and KUBRA; and investments in emerging digital and video companies such as BuzzFeed, VICE and AwesomenessTV.