Clinical Research News – Tackling the Problem of Prescription Drug Diversion

Get up to speed with the data evolution of today with our latest piece in Clinical Research News. 

Although 9 in 10 patient care professionals handle prescription drugs responsibly, the 1 in 10 who steal and abuse them are putting themselves at mortal risk and forcing patients to endure untreated pain. Healthcare organizations comprised of hospitals, pharmacies, clinics, emergency centers and other settings are doing what they can to detect and prevent prescription drug theft or drug diversion. The effort, however, typically entails a lot of manual analysis, and for the most part, the results have been disappointing.

Effective drug diversion prevention needs to consider all fronts throughout the medication lifecycle, from wholesaler procurement and delivery, central pharmacy inventory management, pharmacy distribution to point of care, orders and their fulfillment to nurses, and, ultimately, administration to the patient. Obtaining insight across this continuum and making sense of the data between these disparate systems is daunting and, in most occurrences, out of grasp for the overburdened health organization. For this reason, effective drug diversion prevention should be based on power artificial intelligence. Done right, drug diversion prevention powered by AI can save lives, improve patient care, reduce health care costs, and minimize wasted effort.

See the full article for the challenges health organizations are tackling to get there.