FDB Launches FDB Navigo™ -- a Smarter, Holistic Approach to Optimize Clinical Guidance for Retail Pharmacy

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Aug 25, 2022, 07:55 ET

New solution will streamline the retail pharmacist's
workflow and give them quality time to spend with patients

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FDB (First Databank, Inc.), the leading provider of drug knowledge that helps healthcare professionals make precise decisions, announced today the launch of FDB Navigo^TM, a cloud-based solution that introduces a smarter, holistic approach to clinical guidance for medication safety risks. FDB Navigo provides retail pharmacists with targeted, consolidated and actionable clinical guidance at the most optimal time in their workflow.

FDB will debut FDB Navigo at the NACDS TSE conference August 27-29, 2022, in Boston, Mass.

FDB developed FDB Navigo over the past three years in collaboration with a major retail pharmacy chain. It streamlines the retail pharmacist's workflow by changing the focus of medication safety alerts and the way these alerts are presented and processed. Specifically, FDB Navigo provides actionable guidance to the pharmacist based on the most important risks to the patient as reflected in the patient's clinical record in the pharmacy's system. Furthermore, FDB Navigo consolidates the appropriate information across all major clinical domains—including drug interactions, allergies, precautions and dosing information—to eliminate the current "siloed" approach in which retail pharmacists need to consider alerts within each clinical domain. The solution can also learn from previous pharmacist actions—for example, eliminating alerts at prescription refill if they were already addressed in previous fills.

FDB Navigo assists the retail pharmacist to determine the "next best step" for each patient, whether that is to fill the prescription, provide additional guidance to the patient, or follow up with the patient's physician. To provide further support, FDB Navigo identifies therapeutic alternatives when available based on the patient's risk and equips the pharmacist with a scripted narrative that can be used when counseling the patient or when discussing interventions with the physician. These innovations help standardize pharmacist actions across all pharmacies to better ensure patient safety, while also improving the experience for the pharmacist, provider and patient.

FDB Navigo helps to significantly reduce the number of alerts retail pharmacists receive in order to alleviate their cognitive burden. Unlike legacy clinical screening solutions, this new solution helps retail pharmacists, who are increasingly taking on expanded roles in patient care, to easily identify and respond to medication risks pertinent to individual patients to improve patient safety. Ultimately, FDB Navigo gives retail pharmacists more time and cognitive space to consult with patients and offer more primary care services.

"As retail pharmacists take on greater responsibilities beyond filling prescriptions and providing general advice for taking medications, demands on their time and energy have increased," said FDB President Bob Katter. "FDB is pleased to offer a transformative clinical guidance solution that helps pharmacists meet these demands and practice at the top of their license in order to best serve the health and safety needs of their patients."

Many retail pharmacies now offer a broader range of patient care services such as administering vaccines; testing for HIV, COVID-19 and other conditions; prescribing certain medications; conducting mental health screenings; educating patients about protective health measures; and delivering medication adherence and medication therapy management programs for patients with chronic conditions. Given this evolving role, 92% of patients view their pharmacist as a healthcare provider.

Even though retail pharmacists increasingly provide direct care for patients, a recent survey concluded that they are only able to spend 10% of their time counseling patients. Furthermore, the same survey reported that 75% of retail chain pharmacists and 53% of independent retail pharmacists feel they should spend more time devoted to patient counseling and medication therapy management.

FDB Navigo can help retail pharmacists free up time to perform these important services. Real-world pharmacy data collected while developing the FDB Navigo solution indicates that between 30% and 50% of alerts that pharmacists currently need to review can be eliminated. Once FDB Navigo is fully deployed, retail pharmacists can expect to see a larger decrease in alert volume.

Chirag Patel, PharmD, senior product manager for FDB said: "FDB Navigo leverages additional patient information such as prescription history, previous alert outcomes, and universal medication schedule, to provide patient-specific context for clinical guidance, helping to ensure medication safety. This product development approach, also reflected in other solutions within FDB's PatientFirst™ suite, helps retail pharmacists make more precise, evidence-based decisions."

To learn more about FDB Navigo, visit FDB at the NACDS TSE Conference, August 27 – 29 in Boston, booth #1817 or email [email protected].

About FDB
FDB (First Databank) creates and delivers the world's most powerful drug knowledge that ignites, inspires, and illuminates critical medication decisions. We collaborate with our partners to help improve patient safety, operational efficiency, and health outcomes. Our drug databases drive healthcare information systems that serve the majority of hospitals, physician practices, pharmacies, payers, and all other areas of healthcare and are used by millions of clinicians, business associates, and patients every day. Please visit us at https://www.fdbhealth.com/, or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

About Hearst Health
The mission of Hearst Health is to help guide the most important care moments by delivering vital information into the hands of everyone who touches a person's health journey. Care guidance from Hearst Health reaches the majority of people in the U.S. The Hearst Health network includes FDB (First Databank), Zynx Health, MCG, Homecare Homebase and MHK. Hearst also holds a minority interest in the precision medicine and oncology analytics company M2Gen. Follow Hearst Health on Twitter @HearstHealth or LinkedIn @Hearst-Health.