The Challenge

As the pharmacists’ scope of comprehensive medication management responsibilities and accountabilities expand, there is more of a focus on therapeutic interventions and direct patient care. The lack of availability and delivery of accurate, up-to-date, evidence-based drug information to health-care providers has led to inappropriate medication use, an increase in preventable adverse effects, and suboptimal patient care and outcomes.

• With the increase in patient-load, the rapid development of novel treatments, and other professional responsibilities, conducting a comprehensive literature search is very time-consuming for providers.
• The rise of paywalls and registration requirements creates a barrier between the provider and access to biomedical literature.
• When resources fail to evaluate the validity and accuracy of published information, and clinical significance of the data, inappropriate conclusions are drawn.
• Clinically oriented data may be buried under several reference sources and hard to extract.
• While clinical pharmacists and clinical pharmacy services have helped lessen some of these concerns, such resources may be available only in large academic hospitals– not private practice or smaller settings.
• Communication of medical information in an efficient way that synergistically uses technology has been difficult.

Solution

Integrate ASHP’s AHFS Drug Information data with artificial intelligence to efficiently provide curated, evidence-based information to healthcare providers.

InpharmD has built an AI algorithm, Sherlock, to help provide targeted, specific drug information to providers. Simply, it’s a bot that can read and decipher medical literature. With access to InpharmD’s abstracts and AHFS Drug Information monographs that include therapeutic guideline recommendations, important cautionary information, and other timely and relevant topics related to drug therapy management, Sherlock can transcribe thousands of PDF’s, studies, abstracts and more at a much faster rate, but matching close to human-control accuracy (94%). As InpharmD creates more literature abstracts and AHFS Drug Information creates more monographs, this databank continuously increases, feeding Sherlock more evidence to pull from.

InpharmD accelerates customized literature searches by leveraging their network of national drug information centers and access to AHFS Drug Information data with the help of their machine-learning algorithm, Sherlock.

Sherlock can be accessed by the simple click of a button on the phone! This saves time for providers and removes the burden of accessibility. Sherlock can filter studies in terms of relevancy and recency, ensuring that providers receive the most up-to-date information directly on their phones. With access to InpharmD’s national network of academic drug information centers and backed by AHFS Drug Information data, Sherlock can accelerate the average literature search by 20%, and ensure the information is delivered efficiently to the provider.

Sherlock’s back end is a network of drug information specialists, thereby ensuring that the information provided is valid and reliable.

All of the summaries, monographs, and inquiries uploaded have been completed and verified by InpharmD’s drug information team. Unlike other sources, InpharmD’s pharmacist add a critique commenting on the reliability, external validity, and clinical significance of the study in picture. Furthermore, while Sherlock can provide immediate knowledge, the InpharmD team can send a curated, comprehensive response within 24 hours of inquiry submission. It is the best of both worlds for short-term and long-term drug information delivery.

Providers have used the prototype, reporting positive feedback and success.

An ENT surgeon at one of InpharmD’s affiliated hospitals reported the following:

“I asked about the safety of a drug and the product gave me a summary and literature to answer complex clinical questions fast. This product does a lot of the work that before involved me lots of time clicking and searching and trying tons of different Google searches. For a busy physician it works great.

It saved me time and helped ensure I was using the most up to date research for my decision-making. This would’ve been a game changer when I was at an academic hospital doing clinical research, but even as a private physician it’s great to ensure you’re always up to date with the current evidence.”

Outcomes

• Reliable, evidence-based data conferred by pharmacists and communicated effectively via artificial intelligence 
• 20% of time saved on literature search giving more time for optimal patient care 
• 12 articles summarized per literature search
• Most up-to-date data about novel treatments and medical approaches can be quickly communicated to providers, with a focus on clinical significance and patient impact 
• Estimated improvement in healthcare decision making: 10x