An EPR tool offering a calculator and clinical decision support for safer medicines management is to launch at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust on 1 September.
The Anticholinergic Medication Index (ACMI) tool aims to support prescribers and pharmacists assess patient anticholinergic burden in patients aged 65 and over in inpatient and day case settings.
Integrated directly into the EPR, the trust shares that the tool has the capability to automatically update ACMI scores when an anticholinergic medication is prescribed or changed, using a scoring system based on 88 “commonly prescribed” medicines.
Associated guidance indicates that a low score is between zero and one; an intermediate score is between one and two; and a high score is two or above, indicating a greater risk and the potential for adverse outcomes including delirium and falls, particularly in older patients.
ACMI information will be available for several EPR areas, such as clinician workflow, results review, and the pharmacy care organiser, along with a breakdown of contributing medications. Feedback will be collected from staff to inform the future development of the tool.
In March, CHFT announced its achievement of three core HIMSS standards, including validations for HIMSS INFRAM (Infrastructure Adoption Model), EMRAM (Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model) and ANAM (Adoption Model for Analytics Maturity).
Rob Birkett, the trust’s CDIO, commented: “This is a significant accomplishment, only made possible by the commitment and positive approach of colleagues across the whole trust. The accreditations focused on how we use digital to support quality improvement, reduce risk and enhance safety.”
Wider trend: Medicines management
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency CEO Lawrence Tallon has presented evidence to a parliamentary inquiry on innovation in the NHS, focusing on personalised medicine and AI. Tallon explained measures to accelerate NHS adoption, made a number of predictions on “big changes” to follow the National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, and put forward recommendations for UK government.
The MHRA also announced plans to launch a regulatory AI sandbox with the aim to explore how artificial intelligence can support medicines development and safety. The sandbox, funded by the Regulatory Innovation Office, will enable AI tools to be tested that have the potential to predict how medicines will be absorbed, processed, or whether they may cause harm. The sandbox will also be used to inform the MHRA about the reliability of whether AI tools can support in deciding the safety of new medicines.
NHS England has published a new funding opportunity building on the digital medicines first of type schemes, focusing on scalable technical capability across EPR and ePMA workflows, and GP Connect. The revenue stream is focused across two themes, in medicines on admission, looking for EPR and ePMA capability to “consume fully structured GP medicines” via GP Connect. It also seeks similar capabilities in closed loop medicines management, to include end-to-end and standards-based interoperability for closed loop medicines workflows in EPR and ePMA, as well as automated dispensing cabinets, and pharmacy stock control systems.
