Powys Teaching Health Board - First NHS Wales To Deploy FDB OptimiseRx

Powys is taking positive steps to improve medicines management in primary care by reducing unwarranted variation in prescribing and more cost-effective treatments with FDB OptimiseRx patient-specific prescribing GP software.

Powys Teaching Health Board is the first Welsh health board to go live with FDB OptimiseRx, which supports GPs to prescribe in line with local and national guidance.

FDB OptimiseRx is the only prescribing decision support solution for primary care that uses decision support to present prescribers with guidance messages that are tailored to the individual patient record.

FDB OptimiseRx guidance messages support prescribers to make better-prescribing decisions that are in line with nationally recognised evidence, local formulary and that are cost-effective. The solution delivers contextual guidance, relevant to the patient, in a way that is intuitive to prescribers.

Powys Teaching Health Board is a rural health board with around 133,000 people living across an area that makes up a quarter of Wales. Local health services are delivered primarily through GPs, community hospitals and community services. FDB OptimiseRx offers the Health Board the opportunity to improve prescribing quality across primary care services where the highest volume of prescribing happens.

The Powys Teaching Health Board medicines team have chosen FDB OptimiseRx to support the delivery of the All Wales Medicine Strategy Group’s national indicators which are designed to promote safe and effective prescribing across primary care by encouraging appropriate medication use and regular patient review. FDB is supporting Powys Teaching Health Board by tailoring the messages to reflect the Powys local drug formulary, thus making FDB OptimiseRx relevant to prescribers.

Jason Carroll, Medicines Management Pharmacist, Powys Teaching Health Board: “We chose FDB OptimiseRx because it aligns to our local and national prescribing strategies, and offers us an opportunity to directly support prescribers at the point of care through EMIS Web. We are particularly keen to utilise the unique features of FDB OptimiseRx in supporting delivery of the Welsh Antimicrobial Resistance Programme by promoting the prudent use of antimicrobials in primary care.”

FDB OptimiseRx works by providing patient-specific, evidence-based medication guidance messages within the GP prescribing workflow. The messages are specific to the individual patient record within EMIS Web, TPP SystmOne, and Microtest Evolution, enabling GPs and prescribers to make real-time optimal prescribing decisions that are clinically appropriate and cost-effective for the patient in consultation.

The launch of FDB OptimiseRx in Powys is the latest expansion announcement from FDB . In 2017, FDB OptimiseRx became the UK’s most popular medicines optimisation decision support solution integrated with the GP system suppliers in the UK, with more than 60% of primary care organisations now benefitting from patient-specific medicines optimisation guidance at the point of care, and supporting over 1 million best practice, safety and cost-effective prescribing interactions in the NHS each day at peak times.

Read some of our CCG customer case studies or learn more about OptimiseRx.