Stakeholder views on requiring diagnosis or clinical indication on e-prescriptions.

Background: Medication safety organizations have been recommending the inclusion of diagnosis or clinical indication on prescription orders for decades. However, this information is typically not provided by prescribers and shared with pharmacists, despite the availability of data fields in the most commonly used standard for electronic prescriptions.

Objective: To elucidate the views of selected industry stakeholders relative to perceived barriers to including diagnosis or indication on all electronic prescriptions.

Indication or diagnosis should be required on prescriptions.

Although prospective drug utilization review and patient counseling have long been recognized as professional and ethical responsibilities of pharmacists, the implementation of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 made them legal responsibilities. Ensuring the safety and effectiveness of prescription pharmaceutical care requires that all members of the prescriber-patient-pharmacist triad are equally informed about the therapeutic plan for which the pharmacist is professionally, ethically, and legally responsible for properly implementing. Providing pharmacists with the clinical indication or diagnosis is an important and long overdue first step.

Evaluating the Quality of Health Information in a Changing Digital Ecosystem.

Background: Critical evaluation of online health information has always been central to consumer health informatics. However, with the emergence of new Web media platforms and the ubiquity of social media, the issue has taken on a new dimension and urgency. At the same time, many established existing information quality evaluation guidelines address information characteristics other than the content (eg, authority and currency), target information creators rather than users as their main audience, or do not address information presented via novel Web technologies.

Medication prior authorization from the providers perspective: A prospective observational study.

Background: The prior authorization (PA) process for medications used by community providers requires modernization. Therefore, a deeper understanding of current state of PA from the community provider perspective is imperative to inform and modernize this managed care tool.

Objectives: Objectives of this study were to identify, analyze and categorize the issues associated with the medication PA process from provider practice perspective.

Physicians' opinions of a health information exchange.

Background: Arizona Medicaid developed a Health Information Exchange (HIE) system called the Arizona Medical Information Exchange (AMIE).

Objective: To evaluate physicians' perceptions regarding AMIE's impact on health outcomes and healthcare costs.

Measurements: A focus-group guide was developed and included five domains: perceived impact of AMIE on (1) quality of care; (2) workflow and efficiency; (3) healthcare costs; (4) system usability; and (5) AMIE data content.