September 2022 • PharmaTimes Magazine • 9
// PRESCRIBING //
South Tees NHS Trust reaches e-prescribing milestone
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has taken its next step in implementing Alcidion – its modular electronic patient record (EPR) programme.
Better Meds will now provide a modern electronic prescribing and medication administration (ePMA) system.
The Trust has deployed Better Meds to inpatient and outpatient areas, where it is already removing paper forms and manual processes, as well as helping healthcare professionals to make safe prescribing decisions.
The ePMA solution integrates with Alcidion EPR, which is also being deployed across the Trust to boost digital advancement in ways that respond to clinical priorities and alleviate pressures faced by clinicians.
Daniel Pugh, a pharmacy technician for South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “There is a lot of excitement across the Trust about the possibilities of this ePMA implementation and other digitisation taking place in South Tees Hospitals.
"Integrating electronic prescribing into our Alcidion EPR, joins up drug information with patient assessments, allergies, lab results and vital signs.”
Lynette Ousby, managing director for Alcidion, explained: “Digitisation in healthcare should be about using technology to respond to clinical and operational priorities in the right order for NHS customers. In this case, e-prescribing will help staff to safely get the right medicines to the right patient, at the right time.”
NHS App hits new heights
More than 16 million repeat prescriptions were ordered via the NHS App in the last year, with millions of patients benefiting from health services available through the app.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, use of the NHS App rapidly increased. In the last year alone (June 2021-May 2022), NHS Digital figures show that in addition to repeat prescriptions, three million GP appointments were booked, GP records were viewed more than 90 million times, 277,000 organ donation decisions were registered and more than 22 million NHS App sign-ups were completed.
The NHS App has now recorded more than 28 million sign-ups in total. More than 24 million of these have fully verified their identity through NHS login. This means patients can now access a variety of digital healthcare services quickly and securely through the app.
In June 2022 alone, the NHS App enabled 1.8 million repeat prescriptions to be ordered, 130,000 GP appointments to be booked and 4.8 million GP records to be viewed, saving vital time for both patients and clinicians.
The new plan for digital health and social care published by the Department of Health and Social Care on 29 June commits to a target of 75% of the adult population to be registered to use the NHS App by March 2024.
HOT & NOT
Santen has announced the launch of Ducressa in the UK and Ireland. The therapy is a fixed dose combination of levofloxacin and dexamethasone for use after cataract surgery.
It is part of a more convenient seven-day therapeutic strategy to optimise post-surgery care. Levofloxacin is a proven broad-spectrum antibiotic and dexamethasone is a potent anti-inflammatory agent.
The study showed that 95.2% of the patients in the test arm versus 94.9% of the control arm had no signs of inflammation in the anterior chamber.
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has set out its plans for a new life sciences cluster in Paddington, founded on its growing partnerships with research, industry and community organisations around St Mary’s Hospital.
The Trust’s development includes a new digital collaboration space located at Sheldon Square near Paddington Station. Housing the National Institute for Health and Care Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre’s, it will provide space for lectures, training and events.
Arecor Therapeutics has announced that the European Patent Office has granted two patents – EP3592383B1 and EP3592385B1 – protecting the group’s novel formulations of high-concentration adalimumab until 2038.
Adalimumab, which is sold by AbbVie under the brand name Humira, has been a blockbuster monoclonal antibody product since its launch in 2003 and is indicated for a number of inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease.
Cardior has announced the dosing of the first patient in its multicentre phase 2 trial assessing efficacy and safety of CDR132L in 280 patients with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction after myocardial infarction.
CDR132L is an oligonucleotide-based ncRNA inhibitor that targets microRNA-132, a central regulator of pathological cardiac remodelling processes. Patients enrolled in the phase 2 study will be randomised to receive three intravenous CDR132L infusions.
NHS leaders are warning that both candidates vying for the job of future Prime Minister have so far failed to show a clear appreciation of the pressures facing the health service or propose any meaningful long-term solutions.
The NHS Confederation – on behalf of NHS leaders – has written letters to both candidates, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, laying out deep concerns about the significant challenges facing both the NHS and social care, while also outlining what is needed from the Government and next Prime Minister to address these.
A review of 185 cases of monkeypox – published in the British Journal of Dermatology – has found that the main features of the current outbreak differ from past cases.
Pivotally, the research found that the main symptom is not pustules, as previously described, but much rarer ‘pseudo-pustules’.
The research, conducted by a network of Spanish dermatologists, categorised key features of the current monkeypox outbreak.
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