FDB Vela™ Leader to Share Vision for Vastly Reducing Fill Times for Specialty Drug ePrescribing at NCPDP Annual Conference

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May 04, 2023, 10:00 ET

FDB Navigo™ leader will also speak on innovating the DUR experience to reduce pharmacist burden and enhance clinical quality and safety for patients.

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., May 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- FDB (First Databank, Inc.), the leading provider of drug knowledge that helps healthcare professionals make precise decisions, announced today that Lathe Bigler, vice president of clinical network services for FDB Vela™, will share insights at the NCPDP 2023 Annual Technology & Business Conference on how prescribers can quickly and simply electronically prescribe specialty medications based on new standards, processes, and tools to reduce fill time from weeks to hours (in many cases) and give patients greater access to care.

FDB Vela™ is a new cloud-native electronic prescribing network that enables the seamless flow of critical medication prescription information, benefits verification, and clinical decision support between prescribers, payers, pharmacies and hubs. Recently celebrating its first anniversary, FDB Vela empowers innovation, reduces barriers to participation, and increases the cost-effectiveness of electronic prescribing.

The theme of the NCPDP 2023 Annual Technology & Business Conference, "The Great Race to Close Gaps in Care," aligns with Bigler's presentation, which focuses on advances made over the last year in specialty drug ePrescribing that could help eliminate paper-based processes and associated delays that contribute to patients waiting much longer for specialty drugs than non-specialty medications. These advances help close gaps in care in the specialty medication process while improving prescriber efficiency, increasing patient adherence, and reducing frustration for all involved.

"Today, most prescribers must still manually fax enrollment forms to specialty prescription hubs and pharmacies, which can lead to patients waiting as long as 24 days for needed medications—if it gets completed at all," said Bigler. "That is bad for prescribers, pharmacists, and most importantly, patients. I look forward to sharing with NCPDP attendees valuable information on new standards and other changes that will hopefully turn the highly manual process into a rarity instead of the norm."

Bigler continued, "The hurdles involved in the current state of specialty drug prescribing cause widespread dissatisfaction among stakeholders. The vast majority – 84% -- of providers surveyed have experienced difficulty in prescribing complex medications, while similarly, 82% of patients report challenges accessing prescribed drugs."

Fortunately, NCPDP and HL7 data and transmission standardization changes in recent years concerning ePrescribing enrollment and electronic prior authorizations are designed to help automate the process, significantly decrease prescribing paperwork, and shorten the time to drug fulfillment.

Participation in the FDB Vela network offers prescribers and pharmacies opportunities to take advantage of the efficiencies enabled by the new standards, as well as simplified access to enrollment and benefits eligibility information that previously required faxes and phone calls. Likewise, patients can receive drugs in as soon as a couple of days instead of several weeks, improving the likelihood of patient adherence to therapies and optimal outcomes.

Bigler's presentation, "Using New Standards, Processes, and Tools to Make Specialty ePrescribing Less 'Special'" will be Tuesday, May 9, 2023, from 2:30 to 3 p.m. on the main stage at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians can earn Continuing Pharmacy Education (CPE) hours from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) for this course. View the complete CPE details for NCPDP's 2023 Annual Conference.

FDB Navigo's Patel Speaks on Innovating the DUR Experience to Reduce Pharmacist Cognitive Burden and Enhance Clinical Quality and Safety for Patients

Also speaking at the NCPDP 2023 Annual Technology & Business Conference will be Chirag Patel, PharmD, MBA, senior product manager for FDB. Patel will present how innovation to improve the drug utilization review (DUR) experience not only alleviates pharmacist cognitive burden but also enables retail pharmacists to take on a more prominent role in caring for their patients.

Working with a major retail pharmacy chain, FDB recently launched FDB Navigo™, a cloud-based solution that introduces a smarter, holistic approach to clinical guidance for medication safety risks. Patel will share how FDB Navigo is reducing the number of medication safety alerts pharmacists must respond to by delivering consolidated, patient-centered, and risk-based notifications at the right time in the pharmacist's workflow.

Navigo's notifications are made more readily actionable for pharmacists by including relevant information, recommended next steps, and talking points pharmacists can use when communicating with prescribers and patients. Fewer prioritized and actionable alerts reduce cognitive burden, mitigate patient risk, and elevate patient care while enhancing the pharmacist experience and saving them time.

"Pharmacies today want to provide more services to patients, but they must also ensure that medication safety remains a top priority," said Patel. "FDB is revolutionizing the DUR process by focusing medication safety alerts on the most significant risks to the patient and equipping pharmacists with the tools and resources they need to help address those risks. This empowers pharmacists by enabling more informed clinical decision-making while elevating clinical quality and safety outcomes for patients.

Patel's presentation, "The Future of Pharmacy DUR: Innovating to Improve Patient Outcomes and Pharmacist Well-Being," will be Tuesday, May 9, 2023, from 4:00 to 4:20 p.m. in the Innovation Theater in the Exhibit Hall at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, Ariz.

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.