First DataBank Releases Database Enhancements to Help Improve Patient Safety and Interoperability of Canada’s Electronic Healthcare Systems
San Bruno, CA – May 7, 2007

First DataBank today announced the release of three significant additions to its International Drug Data File™-Canada (IDDF-CA) and Drug Information Framework™ products. These enhancements support Canada’s continued push for an ever safer healthcare system.

The additions are:

Enhanced Precision, Safety, and Stability
One of the biggest barriers to the adoption of drug decision support applications is the frustration of having to specify in a search more descriptive details than are necessary for a particular workflow. To address this, the drug identifiers in First DataBank’s MAPs make it possible for a variety of applications to search for, store, and display drug information as broadly or narrowly as is necessary. For example, when writing a prescription a physician may only need “routed med” information, such as “Amoxicillin Oral” while a pharmacist might need more detail such as Amoxicillin Oral 250 mg Oral Cap. In addition, by mapping drug concepts used for one function to those common in another, MAPs creates a smoother, more accurate information exchange among emerging applications across the healthcare continuum.

The latest version of First DataBank’s Drug-Allergy Module adds a pre-defined pick list, a set of drug concepts that make patient allergy profiling faster and more convenient. First DataBank pharmacists and technical experts create the pick lists by assembling sets of major drug brand names, allergen groups and individual ingredients and designing them for "filter-as-you-type" applications. First DataBank also maintains the lists, eliminating the time-consuming need for healthcare facilities to create and maintain their own lists. By speeding physician adoption, this new version of the module – which quickly identifies drugs, cross-sensitivities, and drug intolerances – can help reduce the clinically significant drug-allergy reactions that comprise about 25 percent of all adverse drug reactions.

In addition, the identifiers in both MAPs and the Drug Allergy Module adhere to “good vocabulary practices” that significantly enhance system wide stability. Stable identifiers reduce investments in change management; single-purpose identifiers create more precision; and “dumb” numbers eliminate the need to update codes as drug information changes, thereby better enabling healthcare stakeholders to track patient information over time.

Finally, the licensing of McKesson Canada’s package level descriptive information enhances inventory management as well as emerging applications like eMAR. The descriptive information includes package size, global trade identification number, universal product codes, and federal and provincial tax information.

“It’s our hope that by speeding access for multiple users to critical drug information – and, therefore, by speeding adoption and interoperability of the latest applications in electronic healthcare – we can play a role in improving patient safety and reducing medication errors” said Lisa Geller, First DataBank Product Manager.

About First DataBank
First DataBank, a subsidiary of Hearst Corporation, is the leading provider of electronic drug information to the healthcare industry. We pioneered the concept of creating executable drug knowledge that's designed to be relevant from the perspectives of multiple end users. For more than two decades, we've partnered with information system developers to deliver proven knowledge bases for integration into a wide range of applications all across the healthcare continuum, with particular expertise in clinical decision support within the workflow. Together with our development partners, First DataBank helps reduce the incidence of medication errors and adverse drug events, which promises to lower healthcare costs and improve patient care. For more information, visit: www.firstdatabank.com.