Practice Fusion partnerships show promise
The first month of the new year was a memorable one for Practice Fusion, a cloud-based electronic health record provider for doctors and patients, with one health management partnership showing promising results and a second partnership focused on adherence being announced for the first time. Jan. 14, the company announced the results of a collaboration with Merck & Co. that was designed to improve public health outcomes through a Population Health Management program for adult vaccines. Launched in April, the program contributed to a statistically significant relative increase in recorded vaccinations among eligible patients on Practice Fusion’s EHR platform.
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The PHM program included more than 20,000 healthcare providers divided into intervention and control groups. Recorded patient visits involved people over the age of 18. During the four-month test period, Practice Fusion observed a 73 percent relative increase (1.10 percent increase in test group versus 0.64 percent increase in the control group) in recorded vaccinations in test versus control patients after comparing the pre- and post-initiation periods of the program.
“These results help support the life-saving potential of delivering population health management through EHR technology,” says Ryan Howard, founder and CEO, Practice Fusion. “Each year, more than 42,000 people die in the United States from vaccine-preventable diseases. By leveraging this technology, we can deliver an important public health tool that can be used by our providers.”
According to company executives, the PHM program helped contribute to more than 25,000 additional vaccines being administered or recorded by practitioners using the Practice Fusion EHR. Through this program, providers are able to see a quantified view of the vaccination rates among their entire patient populations, with EHR messages alerting each provider during an office visit as to when a patient may be eligible for a vaccine. The PHM program was recently named a Gold Winner in the EMR category of the 2014PM360 Trailblazer Awards.
“This electronic health record tool is helping to protect people from disease and communities from outbreaks,” said Julie Gerberding, president, Merck Vaccines. “We are excited to be collaborating with cutting-edge companies like Practice Fusion in efforts like this aimed at improving public health outcomes across a broad spectrum of providers and patients.”
Jan. 13, Practice Fusion announced an agreement with OPTIMIZERx Corp. to integrate its patient savings and support system into the Practice Fusion EHR. This integration, company leaders say, will enable prescribers using the Practice Fusion EHR to help their patients better afford and adhere to their prescribed medications.
With OPTIMIZERx’s SampleMD technology being integrated into the Practice Fusion platform, providers that e-prescribe medications will be able to provide coupons for patients’ co-pays and free sample vouchers alongside prescriptions for their patients electronically through the Practice Fusion EHR. This helps to eliminate the need for providers to store drug samples and physical coupons in their offices, and helps better ensure that patients can get access to medications that are prescribed to them.
“We are very excited to partner with Practice Fusion to significantly expand the utilization of the savings and support programs that we manage on behalf of over 20 leading pharmaceutical companies,” says David Harrell, CEO, OPTIMIZERx. “Together, we can make an impact on the number one challenge in healthcare: improving patient affordability and adherence to medications.”
According to a 2013 Commonwealth Fund Survey, one in five U.S. adults did not fill their prescriptions or skipped doses because their medications were too expensive. With more than 4 million prescriptions managed through the Practice Fusion EHR every month, company leaders believe this program has the potential to impact medication adherence for millions of patients.
“Half of all patients don’t properly take their prescription medications. For patients with chronic diseases like diabetes, non-adherence can have a detrimental impact on their health,” Mr. Howard says. “In fact, according to studies, patients with diabetes have one of the lowest medication adherence rates at 65 to 85 percent. This integration will better help us empower our providers to aid them in improving patients’ access and adherence to medications that have the potential to save lives.”medadnews
Practice Fusion’s EHR platform contributed to a statistically significant relative increase in recorded vaccinations among eligible patients in a study conducted with Merck & Co.
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