Clinical software supplier, iSoft, has launched a web-based ePrescribing and medications administration system for the NHS.
The company says that the system is already being used at ten hospitals in Australia and across six district health boards in New Zealand and that a number of NHS trusts are close to becoming early adopters.
The software, which will be showcased at E-Health Insider Live 2010 in November, provides a drug formulary and decision support rules engine to prevent drugs being wrongly prescribed.
It is specifically designed to allow trusts who have already invested in elements of an electronic patient record to introduce a fully integrated ePrescribing medication administration and pharmacy review.
ISoft has worked together with drug database and active clinical decision support provider, First DataBank to anglicise the product for the UK and says that it expects the first early adopter sites to go-live in 2011.
Adrian Stevens, managing director of iSoft’s UK and Ireland business, said: “We have a very strong, if not unique, proposition in combining the scale and capability of iSoft to deliver a best of breed ePMA solution.
“This is also very timely following the recent publication of the UK government’s white paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS, which highlights the importance of improving healthcare outcomes and patient safety.
“Last year, the National Patient Safety Agency reported that more than 200 patients every month need further treatment or die because of medication mistakes. Our ePMA solution can help to drastically reduce this statistic.”
The announcement follows iSoft’s acquisition of Australian firm Hatrix for £8.6m, a provider of electronic medication management solutions, in April last year.
At the time the company said that the Hatrix’s MedChart product would be embedded in iSoft’s electronic patient record system, Lorenzo.
The shift to offering the product will be offered to trusts as a standalone product or for integration with iSoft’s patient and clinical applications too.
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