PDR Network extends its drug-information services by alliances with two more EHR vendors

In rapid succession, PDR Network (Montvale, NJ) has linked its drug-information services with two more EHR vendors, NextGen Healthcare Information Systems (Horsham, PA) and OptimizerRx (Rochester, NY). The former has a product called Ambulatory EHR (among others), and the latter provides “e-coupon” patient financial-support tools, and has its own network of EHR alliances.

There are hundreds of EHR vendors, and many of them are looking to enhance the breadth of their service offerings through alliances with information vendors like PDR Network. Pharma companies have an interest (which some of them have acted on) to have links or displays of information about their products, available literally at the point of prescribing in a healthcare setting. PDR Network is positioning itself as the one-stop shop for gathering and disseminating this information to multiple EHR vendors, thus enabling the pharma industry to provide relevant drug information by using PDR Network as the conduit. Many of the information elements PDR Network provides are based on reviewed and edited information from FDA and other regulators, but PDR Network is also selling access to pharma marketers for some of these services. The “trick” is to provide this information in a manner that is compliant with the workflow processes of physicians interacting with their own EHR systems.

"Today's healthcare providers view the EHR as their 'desktop' — the center of their workflow – relying on them to provide convenient access to critical information throughout their day," said Andrew Gelman, SVP at PDR Network. "By partnering with OptimizerRx, we will become a hub for that information, offering the most comprehensive patient financial support solution to manufacturers and thus helping healthcare providers bring dramatic savings to their patients on their medications."

Delivering this and other drug-relevant content to physicians is all the more important these days as physicians increase the time they spend during their workday interacting with EHR systems—and more healthcare systems restrict the access of these physicians to face-to-face interactions with sales reps. PDR projects continued growth in the number of providers reached with these critical drug services—both through increases in the user base of current EHR partners and through new EHR partners joining the Network. PDR Network has established a “PDR Certified” EHR network of its alliance members, and says that it now delivers its drug-information and related safety and prescribing information to 225 EHR platforms reaching more than 130,000 EHR prescribers and approximately 600,000 additional healthcare services end users. Other drug-information vendors are jumping into the fray, notably Physicians Interactive, which announced a partnership with EHR vendor Greenway Medical earlier this year.