From physicians to pharmacists, nurses to allied health professionals, your frontline users’ decision support needs are varied and unique – yet they all require rapid access to accurate, actionable answers. Alchemy’s intelligent screening tools eliminate alert fatigue by filtering the “noise” from your system and advising clinicians of relevant issues only – no more, no less – enabling them to make informed decisions in less time. Our solutions are built differently than others, offering you unique advantages for today’s healthcare settings.

Use Clinical Decision Support for:

• Pharmacy systems
• CPOE
• E-prescribing
• Dispensing cabinets
• Electronic medical records
• Disease management systems
• Other point of care applications

Drug-Drug Interactions Module
Drug-Herb Interactions Module

Key Elements Include:

• Summarizes interactions between prescription drugs, OTC, herbal, nutraceutical, vitamin and nutritional products
• Concisely written for the frontline healthcare professional; enables fast and accurate decision-making
• Evaluates interactions between multiple products being ordered or filled at the same time, and across all new and existing prescriptions
• Factors in the route of administration to suppress false positive results (e.g., for ophthalmic or topical forms) that may lead to dangerous alert fatigue
• Screens all ingredients of multi-compound and multi- dose form products to prevent false negative results
• Flags serious drug interactions with alcohol either as an active or inactive ingredient
• Can easily customize user preferences for maximum efficiency
• Provides alerts that coincide with Clinical Pharmacology monograph content for consistency in messaging
  

Decision Support Includes:

• Observation – Presents the activity of one drug on the other in a brief, actionable sentence for the clinician
• Severity - Levels: Severe, Major, Moderate, Minor
• Documentation - Levels: Established clinically, Somewhat established, Not established
• Professional Notes - Describes how and/or why the interaction takes place; includes study data and other evidence supporting the interaction, as well as clinical management text
• Professional Notes Abbreviated - Similar to Professional Notes, but has a smaller character allowance suitable for use on PDAs
• Clinical Management Statements - Brief, standardized guidance statements
• References - Derived from sources including but not limited to: U.S. labeling from manufacturers, medical and pharmaceutical journals, reference texts, and specialty medical journals
  
  

Drug-Lifestyle Interactions Module
Drug-Food Interactions Module

Key Elements Include:

• Summarizes interactions between medications and lifestyle factors including: alcohol, caffeine, grapefruit juice, tobacco, and food (such as Vitamin K-containing products, milk-containing products, tyramine-containing products and many more)
• Concisely written for the frontline healthcare professional; enables fast and accurate decision- making
• Patient demographics are not required for screening (e.g., the clinician does not need to know whether the patient drinks alcohol or is a smoker)
• Factors in the route of administration to suppress false positive results (e.g., for ophthalmic or topical forms) that may lead to dangerous alert fatigue
• Screens all ingredients of multi-compound and multi-dose form products to prevent false negative results
• Can easily customize user preferences for maximum efficiency
• Provides alerts that coincide with Clinical Pharmacology monograph content for consistency in messaging
  

Decision Support Includes:

• Severity - Levels: Severe, Major, Moderate, Minor
• Documentation - Levels: Established clinically, Somewhat established, Not established
• Professional Notes - Describes how and/or why the interaction takes place; includes study data and other evidence supporting the interaction, as well as clinical management text
• Professional Notes Abbreviated - Similar to Professional Notes, but has a smaller character allowance suitable for use on PDAs
• Clinical Management Statements - Brief, standardized guidance statements
• References - Derived from sources including but not limited to: U.S. labeling from manufacturers, medical and pharmaceutical journals, reference texts, and specialty medical journals
  
  

Drug-Disease Module

Key Elements Include:

• Assesses the appropriateness of administering specific medication(s) relative to their indications for medical conditions/disease states, and to their precautions/contraindications
• Helps to ensure safe and appropriate drug therapy during clinical decision processes; also useful for drug utilization review, medication management, and other medication-related analyses and audits
• Mapped to industry standard nomenclature (e.g., ICD-9 and SNOMED codes)
• When the patient’s medical condition is known, Alchemy returns a list of drugs that may be used to treat the condition. Or, when given a specific drug, Alchemy returns a list of conditions for which that drug is typically used for treatment. In the absence of an actual diagnosis code, the system is able to utilize a prescribed drug as an inferred diagnosis
• Non-FDA-approved (“off-label”) indications are included when the use represents current practice and a dosage regimen has been established and documented for the indication; off-label uses are flagged in the system
• Alerts clinicians to potentially harmful contraindications/precautions, enabling careful evaluation of a drug’s benefits and risks prior to prescribing. (“Contraindications” are absolute conditions where a drug should not be used; “precautions” are conditions where a drug can be used with caution.) Black Box Warning Indicators are also included
  Screens all ingredients of multi-compound and multi-dose form products to prevent false negative results
• Concisely written for the frontline healthcare professional; enables fast and accurate decision- making
• Provides alerts that coincide with Clinical Pharmacology monograph content for consistency in messaging
  

Allergy Module

Key Elements Include:

• Evaluates potential allergic reactions for both currently dispensing and historical prescriptions against known allergens contained within the patient demographics
• Concisely written for the frontline healthcare professional; enables fast and accurate decision- making
• Screens all ingredients of multi-compound and multi-dose form products against known allergens to prevent false negative results
• Checks inactive ingredients, such as latex and dyes, against known allergens to prevent false negative results
  

Decision Support Includes:

• Direct Allergy Warning
• Ingredient Family Allergy Warning
• Substance Class Allergy Warning
• Cross Sensitive Allergy Warning
  

Duplicate Therapy Module

Key Elements Include:

• Screens for potential therapeutic duplication between multiple products being ordered or filled at the same time, and across all new and existing prescriptions
• Can be used for prospective, concurrent and/or retrospective drug utilization review
• Concisely written for the frontline healthcare professional; enables fast and accurate decision- making
• Includes a maximum number of occurrences allowable in any therapeutic class, as editorially maintained by Gold Standard, to help prevent unnecessary duplicate therapy alerts. For example, patients treated for heart disease may need to take up to three cardiovascular drugs from different pharmacologic or therapeutic categories; therefore, “3” is the maximum occurrence value for cardiovascular drugs.
• Factors in the route of administration to suppress false positive results (e.g., for ophthalmic or topical forms) that may lead to dangerous alert fatigue
• Excessive Controlled Substance warning allows for a user-defined variable to set the number of controlled substances that must be present before an alert is triggered
  

Decision Support Includes:

• Alert 1 = Same Product or Package
• Alert 2 = Same Clinical Product (e.g., ingredients, strength, dosage form)
• Alert 3 = Same Ingredient/Implicit Route
• Alert 4 = Same Ingredient Family/Route
• Alert 5 = Therapeutic Class Duplication (includes maximum occurrence values)

Dose Check Module

Key Elements Include:

• Guards against excessive, inadequate and/or potentially dangerous dosage levels; ensures the most productive delivery of the patient’s medication for optimal outcomes
• Returns results based on patient-specific data (e.g., age, weight, organ function, etc.) when available in your system. If patient-specific data is unknown, Alchemy supplies accurate dosage information based on aggregated or “typical” patient data
• Usual daily dose data informs clinicians of reliable dosing standards, enabling a more positive drug therapy experience for the patient and leading to improved compliance and better outcomes
• Minimum/maximum daily dose, inclusive of adult, geriatric and pediatric populations. Dosing information applies to FDA-approved indications for drug products with measurable quantitative units (e.g., capsules or tablets)
  Lifetime maximum dose
  Renal and hepatic impairment dosage adjustment statements

Warning Labels Module

Key Elements Include:

• Can be automated to print warning labels for inclusion on prescription packaging during dispensing process
• Available in English and Spanish
• Mapped to industry standard nomenclature
• XML output is customized to fit the number of lines and maximum characters per line that you specify
• Warning labels are ranked and printed in order of priority
• Uses an intelligent system based on patient demographics to eliminate inapplicable labels. Labels are omitted or replaced based on age, gender, or a combination of both

Content for Patients Includes:

• Administration
• Caution
• Dietary
• Dosing
• Route of administration
• Storage
• General information
• Generic products
• Reimbursement
• Legal

Pregnancy Ratings Module

Key Elements Include:

• Displays FDA-assigned pregnancy ratings in categories A-X Considers specific factors such as trimester, dosage and duration of usage, as applicable
• Available for all products included in Alchemy; those without an FDA pregnancy rating are listed as “Not Assigned” for clarity
• FDA-assigned pregnancy rating definitions are available
  

Our Strengths, Your Solutions

When evaluating Clinical Decision Support tools, consider these advantages offered by Alchemy.

Technical Information

• Alchemy is a web service that interacts through well-formed XML queries and responses. All clinical decision support logic can be performed in a single, instantaneous request. Our API will work for you no matter how your system is configured, ensuring quick and simple adoption for your IT staff and end users alike
• Fully automated web-based updates require no IT resources or personnel from your organization, and may be scheduled as often as desired to suit your needs
• Please contact us for complete technical specifications
  
  

Leverage Gold Standard’s expertise in clinical drug content with versatile decision support modules by Alchemy. Please contact us today: info@goldstandard.com, or call 1-800-375-0943.