| ATLANTA—Intel Corp., along with two major physicians organizations and two large national insurers, Aug. 15 announced they have joined to create a think tank in Washington to develop programs that will recommend how physicians, pharmacists, and patients can best use technology to improve the way medications are evaluated, approved, prescribed, filled, used, refilled, adhered to, and measured for outcomes.
The organizations formed the think tank, to be called The Center for Improving Medication Management, in conjunction with SureScripts, the pharmacy industry's system for secure electronic transmission of prescription information, the groups said.
The physician organizations participating are the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Medical Group Management Association, a trade group for medical group practice. The national insurers that are participating are Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and Humana Inc.
The groups said the goal of the center will be to improve the way medications are managed. They cited some recent statistics that show the need for such research and advice.
The Institute of Medicine, for example, has estimated that 1.5 million medication errors occur in the United States each year. Also, a recent report from the National Council on Patient Information and Education found that only about half of U.S. patients typically take their medicines as prescribed, which costs the U.S. economy $177 billion annually in direct and indirect costs.
"Medication adherence is America's new drug problem," Carolyn M. Clancy, director of the Department of Health and Human Services's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, said.
The center's executive director, Kate Berry, said the research organization "will bring medication management to the next level and have a meaningful impact on accelerating the deployment of technology to improve the safety of the prescribing process."
Already, initial discussions are underway with the RAND Corp. and the center to develop a project to demonstrate how certain features of e-prescribing and technology impact medication safety, medication use, and labor costs for the practices involved, the groups said.
"The Center will initiate programs to gather and disseminate best practices for deployment of technology that electronically links physicians, pharmacists, and patients," the groups said.
More information about the center and its activities is available at http://www.theCIMM.org .
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