IHIN Partners with Appriss Health to Improve Public Health by Monitoring Prescriptions and Preventing Substance Use Disorder

DES MOINES, Iowa, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Iowa Health Information Network (IHIN), the state's official health information exchange (HIE), has partnered with Appriss Health, provider of the most comprehensive platform for opioid stewardship and substance use disorder (SUD) in the U.S., to provide state prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) connectivity and information to Iowa physicians and pharmacists. This partnership will help clinicians identify, manage and prevent prescription drug misuse, abuse and diversion.

Appriss Health's PDMP and advanced analytics, risk assessment and patient support platform aggregates and analyzes prescription information from providers and pharmacies and presents visual, interactive information, as well as advanced analytic insights to help physicians, pharmacists and care teams provide better patient safety and outcomes. Appriss Health's Narx Score, specifically, uses machine learning to assess a patient's real-time controlled substance prescription history and predict their risk for substance use disorder, alerting physicians to potential abuse and enabling the care team to intervene.

"It's clear that patient safety and public health are the highest priorities for the Iowa Health Information Network and we applaud its efforts to maximize the state's PDMP and arm providers with the clinical decision support tools to truly help make an impact on our nation's opioid crisis," said Rob Cohen, president of Appriss Health.  

The Iowa Clinic, which serves over 1.1 million patients in Central Iowa annually, will be offering its more than 250 providers access to the state's PDMP as well as Appriss Health's EHR-integrated PDMP platform through the IHIN-Appriss Health partnership. "We are very excited to give our providers access to tools that improve care and help combat the opioid epidemic," said Beth McGinnis, the clinic's chief information and revenue cycle officer. "Prescription opioids are responsible for dozens of deaths in Iowa each year and it's important we continue the collective effort to stop these tragedies."

IHIN is offering Iowa prescribers and pharmacists who are IHIN participants online access to Appriss Health's platform for a yearly subscription fee. For details on this program, please contact:

The Iowa Health Information Network (IHIN)
Stephanie Hultman, VP of Participant Outreach
Email:  [email protected]
Phone:  515-297-8058

"IHIN is excited to be working with Appriss Health and the Iowa Board of Pharmacy to bring this valued tool to our participants in Iowa and aid in fighting substance abuse and the opioid epidemic," said Stephen Stewart, president and CEO of IHIN. "This is another opportunity for Iowa to capitalize on the value of IHIN, built over the years by a collaboration of public, private and provider participants."

About Appriss Health 
Appriss Health provides trusted technology solutions to improve public health. In collaboration with state governments, we built the nation's most comprehensive, standards-driven data integration platform to combat the nation's opioid epidemic. Our platform manages more than 400 million daily transactions and connects states, prescribers, pharmacies and hospitals across the U.S. It enables seamless in-workflow visibility to patients' prescription drug history and a comprehensive solution that improves access to needed care for people with behavioral health conditions and social determinants of health challenges. Our real-time clinical decision support and insights are integrated into the workflows of more than 130 electronic health records and every national pharmacy chain. Combined, our data analytics solutions and bi-directional communication capabilities support whole-person care, improve health outcomes and reduce overall healthcare spending. For more information, please visit apprisshealth.com and follow Appriss Health on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Iowa Health Information Network
The Iowa Health Information Network (IHIN) is the official statewide health information exchange (HIE) in the state of Iowa. IHIN aims to improve care, increase security, promote cost savings, streamline treatment and reduce medical errors through the secure exchange of electronic health information.  For more information, please visit www.ihin.org.

Media Contact
Sofia Kosmetatos
Amendola Communications (for Appriss Health)
646-431-8423
[email protected]

SOURCE Appriss Health