Merck, Geisinger open up access to their EMR programs for tracking medications and home care

Merck and Geisinger have launched two web-based programs that aim to boost medication adherence and reduce drug errors, as well as help patients and providers coordinate with other caregivers, with plans to commercialize them across a variety of electronic medical record systems.

"We’re taking what we’ve built at Geisinger over the last several years and looking to make it available to the broader marketplace," Strategic Program Director Julie Rockey told FierceMedTech.

Discussions on expanding the programs’ use are currently ongoing with several companies in the health IT space, said Rockey, who helps lead the collaboration. The companies hope to make more details available at conferences in the coming months, she said.

The MedTrue app integrates medication data from several sources, including prescription fill data and changes to a patient’s regimen, to provide a list of medications that has been verified by their healthcare team.

"We know from prior work that about 70% of our medication lists are inaccurate, and these inaccuracies can lead to medical errors," Mike Evans, Geisinger’s VP of enterprise pharmacy and chief pharmacy officer, said in a statement. "The MedTrue application provides an interface that seeks to clean up medication lists, so patients and providers can be on the same page regarding medication use and better care decisions can be made."

Meanwhile, the Family Caregiver Application, piloted in Geisinger’s oncology system, provides a shared calendar for medical and personal appointments to help schedule procedures and medications, based on daily activities. It also collates the contact information of healthcare team members and allows the patient to express their personal preferences and goals over their course of treatment.

"We are excited to begin the next phase of our work together, as we actively explore the expanded use and commercialization of these applications with other stakeholders in the healthcare system," said Lisa French, associate VP of strategy and commercial model innovation for Merck’s U.S. market.

The collaboration plans to embed the applications directly into EMR platforms and have them be compatible with healthcare provider workflows—using the SMART on FHIR set of data standards, or Substitutable Medical Applications, Reusable Technologies and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources—while patients and caregivers access the programs at home through a web portal.

In addition, the two companies plan to conduct real-world outcomes studies, with the goal of providing more scientific evidence for the programs’ use, expecting to see results in the second quarter of 2019.

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