PharmaSmart, PDX technology integrate through new partnership

FORT WORTH, Texas — PharmaSmart's kiosks will be integrated with PDX's Enterprise Pharmacy System, allowing pharmacies with the EPS system to collect data from patients through the kiosks, under a partnership between the two companies announced Friday.

When patients opt-in, such clinical data as blood pressure and weight from the kiosks are recorded to their records in EPS and then to their centralized healthcare records stored in the Rx.com Enterprise Pharmacy Record. The integration will also allow notification of pharmacy staff when severe or urgent lab data indicate that intervention is required. The technology will be available in EPS in 2014, the companies said.

"PDX understands that pharmacies need tools to not only remain competitive in the marketplace, but also to drive patient outcomes," PDX president Brad Crosslin said. "By integrating this type of technology with EPS and facilitating the collection of clinical data within the patient's healthcare record at the pharmacy and within the national [Enterprise Pharmacy Record], we are helping pharmacists take an even more thorough, direct role in the care of their patients."

Patients using the kiosk receive a smart card that links them to their individual PharmaSmart profile, and the integration of the two systems will give pharmacists access to an advanced clinical portal providing a comprehensive overview of the patient's historical biometric data. This allows timely patient interventions, counseling sessions and increases medication therapy management and cognitive healthcare assessments for hypertensive, obese and diabetic patients.