Tabula Rasa HealthCare and ASHP Partner to Facilitate Use of MedWise Software, Improve the Safe Use of Medications in Health Systems

Tabula Rasa HealthCare (“TRHC”) (NASDAQ:TRHC), a healthcare technology company advancing safe use of medications, and ASHP (American Society of Health-System Pharmacists) today announced a collaboration to establish best practices for the use of TRHC’s MedWise™ software platform across health-system patient care settings. The goal is to improve patient outcomes and advance pharmacy practice through science and technology-driven solutions.

ASHP represents nearly 58,000 pharmacy professionals who serve as patient care providers in hospitals, health systems, ambulatory clinics, and other healthcare settings spanning the full spectrum of medication use. In this collaboration, ASHP will engage three large health systems and their pharmacists to evaluate the use of MedWise across hospital settings, including acute, subacute, and ambulatory, and across discharge and bundled-payment programs to support medication decisions at the point of care.

“The use of MedWise in health systems aligns with ASHP’s vision that medication use will be optimal, safe, and effective for all people all of the time,” said ASHP CEO Paul W. Abramowitz, Pharm.D., Sc.D. (Hon.), FASHP. “This partnership will help to facilitate the use of the medication safety technology with pharmacy professionals and supports our focus on advancing innovations in pharmacy practice to improve the quality and safety of patient care.”

TRHC’s Personalized Pharmacotherapy Research and Development Institute has well-established the impact that MedWise can have on predicting medication-related outcomes in the peer-reviewed literature. Most recently, MedWise was used to simulate and predict the risk of Long QT Syndrome using various repurposed COVID-19 medication regimens in a high-risk elderly cohort of patients, without putting patients at-risk through actual trial and error of these regimens (article here).¹  In addition, research conducted by Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, Somerset identified that hospitalized patients discharged at home with a MedWise Risk Score greater than 20 were 1.9 times more likely to be re-admitted within 30 days compared to those with lower MedWise Risk Scores.²  A large study also was recently conducted to understand the relationship between the MedWise Risk Score and premature death. Results of this study are pending publication.

“MedWise helps providers optimize medication regimens by calculating patients’ MedWise Risk Scores™ at multiple points of care,” said TRHC Chairman and CEO Calvin H. Knowlton, Ph.D.  “The greatest ROI is when it is used prospectively at the point of prescribing. The MedWise technology improves workflow for pharmacists by highlighting scores that require attention. Risks identified are actionable and mitigation has been documented to improve outcomes and medical cost savings. We look forward to our partnership with ASHP to continue TRHC’s mission of safe use of medications.”  

MedWise technology deploys an accumulative, simultaneous, multi-drug analysis to support point-of-prescribing decisions and helps ensure efficacy and adherence. Targeted interventions completed by certified MedWise Advisors optimize the treatment of patients with complex and chronic illness to improve Star Ratings, HEDIS® measures, EQuIPP™ scores, and other quality ratings.

ASHP and TRHC will explore future opportunities to publish findings from using MedWise in health-system settings and participate in bidirectional collaboration on existing educational programming, such as continuing education and professional development. Additional opportunities will be explored to partner with ASHP’s state affiliates to incorporate these tools as standards of practice for pharmacists and technicians.

About Tabula Rasa HealthCare
Tabula Rasa HealthCare (NASDAQ: TRHC) provides medication safety solutions that empower healthcare professionals to optimize medication regimens and reduce medication-related risk, specifically targeting adverse drug events. TRHC’s technology solutions, including DoseMeRx™ and MedWise™, improve patient outcomes, reduce hospitalizations, and lower healthcare costs. TRHC’s extensive clinical tele-pharmacy network improves care for patients nationwide. Its solutions are trusted by health plans and pharmacies to help drive value-based payment results. For more information, visit TRHC.com.

About ASHP
ASHP represents pharmacists who serve as patient care providers in acute and ambulatory settings. The organization’s nearly 58,000 members include pharmacists, student pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians. For 79 years, ASHP has been at the forefront of efforts to improve medication use and enhance patient safety. For more information about the wide array of ASHP activities and the many ways in which pharmacists advance healthcare, visit ASHP’s website, ashp.org, or its consumer website, SafeMedication.com.

¹ Al Rihani S, Smith M, Bikmetov R, Deodhar M, Dow P, Turgeon J, Michaud V.  Risk of Adverse Drug Events Following the Virtual Addition of COVID-19 Repurposed Drugs to Drug Regimens of Frail Older Adults with Polypharmacy J. Clin. Med. 2020, 9, 2591.

² San Fillippo S, Michaud V, Wei S, Turgeon J, Brunetti L. Classification and assessment of medication risk in the elderly (CARE).  Poster presented at annual American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Midyear Clinical Meeting; December 6-10, 2020 (RP-438).