Practice Fusion Releases Prescription Index, Launches Research Division

SAN FRANCISCO, July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Practice Fusion launches its Research Division today with the release of a Prescription Index tracking medication volume by physician specialty.   Prescriptions for blood pressure (Lisinopril, Family Practice), cholesterol (Simvastatin, Internal Medicine), infection (Amoxicillin, Pediatrics) and depression (Prozac, Psychiatric) topped the four lists.  Practice Fusion's new Research Division provides the critical information needed to power clinical research for drug interaction monitoring, disease outbreak reporting and health studies.

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The Prescription Index is a regularly updated report on prescription trends from the Practice Fusion medical community. Top five prescriptions per specialty are listed below and the complete lists of top 20 prescriptions per specialty are available at Practice Fusion's Health Research Center.

Top 5 Family Practice Prescriptions

1. Lisinopril (Blood pressure)
2. Simvastatin (Cholesterol)
3. Acetaminophen-hydrocodone (Pain)
4. Metformin (Diabetes)
5. Phentermine (Weight loss)

Top 5 Internal Medicine Prescriptions

1. Simvastatin  (Cholesterol)
2. Synthroid   (Thyroid)
3. Amlodipine (Blood pressure)
4. Lisinopril  (Blood pressure)
5. Metoprolol (Blood pressure)

Top 5 Pediatric Prescriptions

1. Amoxicillin (Antibiotic)
2. Zyrtec  (Allergy)
3. Albuterol inhalation solution (Asthma)
4. Zithromax  (Antibiotic)
5. Motrin Children's  (Fever)

Top 5 Psychiatric Prescriptions

1. Prozac (Depression)
2. Wellbutrin (Depression)
3. Zoloft (Depression)
4. Adderall (ADHD)
5. Lexapro (Depression)

"As one of the largest healthcare platforms in the US, I believe Practice Fusion has an obligation to participate in health research," said Ryan Howard, CEO of Practice Fusion. "We are a safety net that can monitor dangerous drug reactions and disease outbreak in real-time and can then immediately report these alerts to health agencies and our medical community."

All research information utilized by Practice Fusion is fully de-identified and compliant with HIPAA cfr 164.514. Both electronic and printed prescriptions were included in the Prescription Index calculations. More information can be found at www.practicefusion.com/research.

About Practice Fusion

Practice Fusion provides a free, web-based Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system to physicians. With charting, scheduling, e-prescribing, billing, lab integrations, unlimited support and a Personal Health Record for patients, Practice Fusion's EMR addresses the complex needs of today's healthcare providers and disrupts the health IT status quo. Practice Fusion is the fastest growing EMR community in country with more than 43,000 users in 50 states. The company is backed by Salesforce.com and Morgenthaler Ventures. For more information on Practice Fusion, please visit practicefusion.com.

About the Pharmaceutical Sector

Reuters reported (2007) that overall, pharmaceutical firms spend almost $30 billion annually to promote their products, and that such spending is increasing at about 10 percent annually.  The greatest amount of advertising money spent on pharmaceuticals in 2005 was for 10 drugs in the following seven categories: 1) heartburn, 2) insomnia, 3) cholesterol, 4) asthma and allergy, 5) nail fungus, 6) blood clots and 7) erectile dysfunction (Heinrichs, 2007).  Advertising spending positively correlates with increases in the number of prescriptions written for DTC drugs (Spake and Joseph, 2007). A study reviewed by the GAO found a median increase in sales of more than $2 for every $1 spent on advertising (United States, 2006). The pharmaceutical sector is estimated to spend $2.2B on online advertising in 2011.

About EHRs and Pharmaceuticals

The Center for Information Technology Leadership estimated that nationwide adoption of EHR solutions will save the US healthcare system $44 billion per year. Eliminating the overuse of medications and switching from brand-name drugs to generics or to the most cost-effective therapeutic alternatives would save almost $27 billion. Included in this estimate is a potential $2 billion in savings from reducing patient adverse drug events.

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Ryan Howard

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SOURCE Practice Fusion