Medication Therapy Management services have been driven, to some degree, by the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit that took effect in January 2006 (following the late 2003 passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA)), and are increasingly valued by employers and other payers.
Medication Therapy Management – customized clinical guidance administered by pharmacists actively working with patients and their physicians to identify and manage medication therapy for chronic diseases, coupled with enhanced patient education and monitoring – can greatly reduce medication errors and adverse drug events. This ultimately improves patient safety and quality of care.
First DataBank, the industry leader in providing drug databases for use in healthcare information systems, plays a critical and valuable role in driving optimum performance of an effective Medication Therapy Management system.
NDDF Plus — Valuable Drug Database for Facilitation of Medication Therapy Management.
An Expansive Collection of Drug and Drug-Disease Decision Support Information
First DataBank’s National Drug Data File Plus™ (NDDF PlusTM) provides an expansive collection of drug and drug-disease decision support information, and professional and consumer drug reference to aid in the execution of the best possible Medication Therapy Management.
Medication Therapy Management places the pharmacist in a one-on-one situation with the consumer. The NDDF Plus database serves as a key resource in helping to guide and enhance that personal interaction. As the pharmacist compiles an in-depth profile of the patient’s medical condition, that information can then be compared against the database for subsequent discussion regarding a variety of elements, including drug-drug, drug-allergy, and drug-food interactions, side effects, precautions, drug-disease contraindications, and much more.
In-Depth, Professional Drug Reference Information
NDDF Plus provides in-depth, professional drug reference information. It incorporates the widely trusted
American Hospital Formulary Service® Drug Information Monographs, which bring together all relevant information about a particular drug. These monographs allow the pharmacist to make the most informed choices about which counseling messages to deliver.
A Comprehensive Array of Consumer Medication Information
NDDF Plus offers a comprehensive array of
consumer medication information (CMI) monographs, as well as drug-drug and drug-food interaction monographs specifically written for consumers,
enabling the pharmacist to present drug information to the patient in more user-friendly language. NDDF Plus also contains drug images and imprints, further helping to prevent and reduce patient confusion, drug mix-ups, and adverse incidents.
Drug-Disease Decision Support Enhances Medication Therapy Management Services
Because the disease being treated also needs to be part of the pharmacist-to-consumer counseling, our drug-disease decision support databases add another layer of support to any Medication Therapy Management program. These drug databases draw on the
First DataBank Medical Lexicon (FML), a concept-based medical vocabulary that covers indications, disease conditions, and health-related conditions designed to better assess the link between a patient’s medical history and his or her prescribed therapy.