New Ameritox Rx Guardian INSIGHT(SM) Report Supports Improved Patient Care, Public Safety

BALTIMORE, May 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Ameritox(SM), the nation's leader in Pain Medication Monitoring Solutions®, announced the official launch of its new Rx Guardian INSIGHT(SM) Report, a tool developed by Ameritox to help clinicians quickly assess five critical dimensions of medication adherence in patients with moderate to severe chronic pain.

Chronic pain affects more than 50 million people in the United States.  Opioid therapy provides needed relief to many patients, yet these powerful medications can also be misused, abused or diverted from the patients who need them.  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in November 2011 that prescription painkiller overdoses now kill more than 15,000 Americans every year and that 12 million people in the U.S. reported using these drugs for non-medical reasons. The CDC estimated that non-medical use of narcotics, such as Vicodin, OxyContin, Opana and methadone, cost health insurers as much as $72.5 billion each year.

"Physicians are on the front line of delivering quality care by effectively treating pain and protecting society by identifying potential patterns of prescription drug misuse, abuse and diversion – and at Ameritox, we are committed to providing our physician partners with the most advanced clinical tools to support this critical mission," said Dr. Harry Leider, Chief Medical Officer at Ameritox. "After listening carefully to physician feedback, we designed the Rx Guardian INSIGHT Report to provide accurate, easy-to-read test results that address the key clinical issues facing physicians with a focus on their top two concerns related to patients on opioid therapy – Is my patient taking any drug of abuse or any prescription medications that I don't know about?  The new INSIGHT Report reflects our ongoing commitment to provide physicians with the advanced tools they need, both in our advanced laboratory services and innovative data analysis tools."

Developed with substantive input from pain management physicians, the Rx Guardian INSIGHT Report provides a concise summary of the most important elements of a patient's medication monitoring results. It also helps clinicians assess a patient's medication adherence over time by showing a chronology of previous Rx Guardian CD(SM)  standard scores – a proprietary methodology offered only by Ameritox.

The Rx Guardian INSIGHT(SM) Report adds context to results from the Ameritox Rx Guardian CD medication monitoring tool, which uses a dynamic database of more than 1,000 pain patients clinically assessed as adherent and a proprietary normalization algorithm to help physicians assess adherence.  The Rx Guardian INSIGHT Report's five-element summary includes:

1. Drugs of Abuse, identifying recent illicit drug use;
2. Prescription Drugs or Metabolites Detected (but not listed on the lab requisition form), showing medications the physician may not have prescribed;
3. Medication Monitoring Results, showing if the patient has been recently taking the pain medications that are prescribed;
4. Rx Guardian CD(SM) Results Standard Scores, comparing the patient's adjusted urine drug levels to a dynamic reference database of patients clinically assessed as adherent; and
5. Rx Guardian CD(SM) Historical Trend, tracking the patient's Rx Guardian CD(SM) Standard Scores over time.

"The data we provide to clinicians is critical to the doctor/patient conversation around safe use of powerful medications," said Leider. "The INSIGHT Report is an important and innovative new tool as it provides physicians with a simple and intuitive summary of our test results -- that they can then use to help reduce misuse, abuse and diversion of these painkillers while enhancing patient care and safety."

About Ameritox

Ameritox is the nation's leader in Pain Medication Monitoring Solutions®, offering specialized laboratory testing and reporting services. Ameritox's expertise and innovative science provide physicians with insights and support to enhance and optimize the care of chronic pain patients. Ameritox offers the most thorough pain medication monitoring lab process – Rx Guardian(SM) – with Rx Guardian CD(SM), the only pain medication monitoring process with a proprietary normalization algorithm and a reference database of pain patients clinically assessed for medication adherence. Patient results are compared against this database, helping physicians assess whether patients are taking their pain medications correctly. Monitoring through urine drug testing helps physicians make more informed clinical decisions and manage the risks and complexities associated with prescribing pain medications. Ameritox is headquartered in Baltimore, Md. with laboratory facilities in Midland, Texas and Greensboro, N.C. Ameritox can be found online at www.ameritox.com, on Twitter @Ameritox, on Facebook at facebook.com/ameritox on YouTube at youtube.com/ameritox or on LinkedIn through Ameritox's company page.

© 2012 Ameritox Ltd. All rights reserved. AMERITOX, the AMERITOX logos, AMERITOX AUTOREMINDER, AMERITOX MEDICATION MONITORING SOLUTIONS, AMERITOX UNIVERSITY, PAIN MEDICATION MONITORING SOLUTIONS, POWERED BY YOUR NEED TO KNOW and PROTECT YOUR PATIENTS. PROTECT YOUR PRACTICE. RX GUARDIAN, RX GUARDIAN CD, and RX GUARDIAN AUTOREMINDER are trademarks of Ameritox.

SOURCE Ameritox