50 years of Micromedex – a celebration of our history
Since the mid 1970s, Micromedex has been a pioneer in evidence-based clinical decision support. That’s 50 years of supporting clients and partners to make an impact on patient safety and clinical efficiency. Let’s take a look at the history of the solution, and how it has evolved into the Micromedex we know today.
Did you know the name Micromedex originally came from three words: microfiche, medical, and index. That’s how it started; the clinical evidence was shared in microfiche format – a stack of images that stored information in miniaturized form.
Micromedex has evolved through the years to best serve its users, from microfiche to CD-ROM, to web-based access and mobile applications, to the cloud-based software and virtual assistant technology that is used today.
“For 40 years I have relied on Micromedex clinical decision support for the many facilities I have been responsible. During that time, Micromedex has continued to be an industry leader, setting the pace in electronic content delivery as technology advances.”
– Robert Fink, Pharm.D., MBA, FACHE, FASHP, BCNSP, BCPS, VP, Pharmacy Services, UofL Health, USA
Trusted for a reason
Clinicians across more than 80 countries around the world have continued to rely on Micromedex over the decades. That’s because clinically relevant, accurate evidence is needed to support critical decisions, and the experienced clinical team at Micromedex supports a robust and unbiased editorial process, for consistent and timely information. And that’s why Micromedex received accreditation from NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the UK.
“We cannot imagine collecting reliable clinical information sufficiently in a limited amount of time without Micromedex”
– Hiroshi Kotani, Pharmacist, Keio University Hospital, Japan
“We use Micromedex every day to respond to requests from healthcare professionals about adverse drug reactions, because we know we can find detailed clinical information quickly, even for complex patient cases.”
– Dr. Gwenaëlle Veyrac, Pharmacologist and Hospital Practitioner, Regional Pharmacovigilance Center, CHU Nantes, France
Let’s take a look at Micromedex through the years.
It started with toxicology
In 1973, toxicology was one of the first content sets built that later became Micromedex – and now it’s the most trusted source of toxicology information for many poison control centers around the world.
“When we get a panicked caller, the first thing we do is turn to Micromedex. We trust the quality of the product, that it will have the current information available to guide us through their care. It’s a mainstay, integral to what we do.”
– Julie A. Weber, RPh, CSPI, Director, Missouri Poison Center, USA
“Micromedex is an accurate tool that is critical in supporting toxicology management, due to the quality of its clinical and pharmacology content, and therapeutic approaches for poisoned patients.”
– Dr. José Luis Conejo Menor, Head of the Toxicological Information Service, National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences, Spain
Evolving to drug information
Over the years, Micromedex evidence-based content expanded to include drug information, with international content from Martindale and Index Nominum. Joachim Lelievre is a hospital pharmacist at Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Brest in France, where Micromedex is a trusted resource for clinicians, and supports them as they choose the best therapeutic approach for their patients. “We have used the international drug content in Micromedex for many years” says Lelievre, “it lets us rapidly recover the latest evidence-based information that we need.”
Today, Micromedex includes comprehensive evidence-based referential content, interactive screening tools, and management recommendations for over 2,600 drug substances, plus international drug information from 166 countries.
“Micromedex is the highest priority source of information in clinical practice. It is also an indispensable database for pharmacy education.”
– Fumiko Ohtsu, Ph.D., Professor, Meijo University, Japan
Expanding into patient education
The team recognized the impact of patient engagement on treatment adherence and improved outcomes, and so evidence-based patient education was built to support Micromedex clients. These documents are designed to be inclusive; they are written to support all patients, including those with lower literacy levels, and are available in up to 15 different languages.
Caring for specialty populations
Clinicians in neonatal intensive care units historically accessed neonatal-specific drug information by referencing a physical book. This changed when Micromedex incorporated the neonatal information from NeoFax into its content sets, to help improve access and frequency of updates.
Now, users of Micromedex are equipped to protect their most vulnerable patients with precise dosing and clinical information for both neonatal and pediatric care.
Driving efficiency and patient safety
As digital transformation advanced into the healthcare arena, hospitals were looking for efficiency gains that would also enhance patient safety. Today, electronic medical record (EMR) digitalization is a key investment priority for 53 percent of healthcare organizations.1 Since many clinicians use an EMR every day, integrating clinical decision support from Micromedex into the EMR is a simple, effective way of providing information more quickly, and boosting efficiency.
“With automated alerts from Micromedex, clinicians can work much faster because the clinical guidance they need is immediately available in their workflow in the EMR. Thanks to this, we can now process up to 160,000 prescriptions each month in each facility where Micromedex has been integrated. That’s a 5,300 percent increase — a scope that is only possible with this kind of digital transformation.”
– Antonio Dominguez Garza, Corporate Head of Pharmacy Informatics and Hospital Pharmacy at Christus Muguerza, Mexico
Many hospitals now integrate Micromedex into the EMR, which allows for automated patient safety alerts directly within clinician workflows. Clinical teams at Hospital Internacional de Colombia, one of Colombia’s leading hospitals, can now evaluate drug interactions, maximum and minimum dosage considerations, and IV compatibility all within the EMR workflow due to Micromedex integration, and the hospital expects to see a reduction in medication errors as a result.
In the month following their Micromedex integration, TidalHealth Peninsula Regional, a non-profit hospital in Maryland, United States of America, ran time studies on the searches being conducted using Micromedex. They discovered that clinicians received their answers in less than one minute 73% of the time, compared to 3-4 minutes previously. These time efficiencies mean that clinicians can spend more time with patients for high quality care.
Supporting the whole care team
Today, partnership with EBSCO seamlessly brings together two award-winning solutions to support clinicians in different roles across the care team. With DynaMedex, users can now access medication insights from Micromedex and disease and condition information from DynaMed for an all-in-one evidence-based solution for an optimal clinician experience.
Thank you to the community
As we take stock and celebrate this golden milestone, we’d like to thank all Micromedex partners and clients. The Micromedex team is excited about the future of clinical decision support and looks forward to continuing to support clinicians across the care continuum.
“Being partners for decades, Micromedex has become an irreplaceable part of our success story in the German speaking countries. Micromedex adds decisive value to all our customer offers and has a tremendous reputation in the market.”
– Nils Wörner, Vice President Global Sales, DAV Media Group
“Throughout the years we have built a trusted relationship with our clients. We only provide reliable solutions with very high standards of quality. We have been a partner of Micromedex for more than 20 years. As the gold standard of medical and pharmacological information, Micromedex is a product well suited to the portfolio of solutions we offer. We believe that it is the ‘Rolls Royce’ of information.”
– Arantxa Unda, CEO, Sigesa
“DotLib is proud to be a Micromedex partner for 33 years, since our inception. Over the decades, Micromedex has proven to be a continuously evolving solution, a must-have clinical decision support tool for healthcare professionals and institutions that pursue excellence in patient care. The impact of Micromedex on society is longstanding and meaningful, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”
– Marcos Assakura, Co-Founder, DotLib
When is the last time you saw the full depth and breadth of Micromedex?
Get in touch today to take a look
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