OnCallData Adds Mobile Devices To E-Prescribing PortalOnCallData Adds Mobile Devices To E-Prescribing Portal

15 Healthy Mobile Apps

InstantDx/OnCallData has added mobile applications to its electronic prescribing and medication reconciliation portal that will allow physicians to e-prescribe and access patient medication lists using iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android devices.

The announcement is another sign that companies are eager to develop applications that work with mobile devices, which are becoming more ubiquitous among healthcare providers.

The company's OnCallData community health portal provides hospital systems and regional health information organizations (RHIOs) with a patient-centric view -- a single point of access for electronic prescribing that reconciles medication history across multiple providers.

In an interview with information, Krishnan Seshadri, InstantDx/OnCallData's CTO, said the new mobile applications will enable physicians to act upon real-time medication history as well as e-prescribe on state-of-the-art devices that have touchscreen interfaces.

Seshadri said OnCallData, which is the first e-prescribing system certified by Surescripts, is interoperable with any electronic health record (EHR) and will help physicians meet meaningful use requirements under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.

Seshadri also observed that the combination of OnCallData's technology with mobile devices provides physicians and their staff with "a very intuitive interface and optimal form factor for electronic prescribing and actionable medication reconciliation in ambulatory, emergency department, and hospital settings."

According to Allan Weinstein, chairman of InstantDx/OnCallData, the company carefully designed the newly updated mobile applications to maintain the same look, feel, and functionality as the desktop and portal products used by physicians and their staff, hospitals, and health information exchanges (HIEs).

"The key is to have a platform design that can be easily adapted for ongoing innovation, yet still fit in with the workflow requirements in today's portal, desktop, tablet, and smartphone work environments," Weinstein said in a statement. "The products must look the same, provide the same actionable, accurate, of-the-moment information, and still be easy and intuitive to use, while delivering on the key attribute -- speed, speed, and speed."

Prior to routing new prescriptions or renewals to any of the more than 56,000 community and mail-order pharmacies (such as Medco, Express Scripts, and CVS/Caremark) in the United States, OnCallData's e- prescribing offers a complete drug-utilization review that checks drug-to-drug interactions, drug-to-allergy interactions, drug-to-diagnosis contraindications, and patient eligibility.

"Within a few seconds, a physician can obtain a patient's real-time medication history, organize the active/inactive medication list, perform a detailed drug-utilization review, and transmit multiple prescriptions electronically to any pharmacy (chain or mail-order) in the U.S. From a patient-safety standpoint, this significantly reduces the chances for an adverse drug event occurrence," Seshadri said.

The OnCallData portal helps healthcare providers access a complete, up-to-date record of their patient's medication history, including medications prescribed by other medical practices or hospital.

Additionally, the community health portal provides all of the stakeholders in the prescribing process -- including patients, physicians, pharmacists, and payers -- with a unified hub for managing prescriptions.