Digitalisation is bringing revolutionary changes to healthcare. The dynamic work with data in the field of expert systems is contributing to this. The advanced interconnection of data sources ultimately improves the quality of medical care, automates processes, minimises the risk of individual error and enables patient involvement in an accessible way. GAMO’s Aesculap expert medication system helps in safe pharmacotherapy: checking for drug interactions or contraindications.
The Aesculap system is a comprehensive medication system operated in the GAMO Cloud environment in the Software as a Service (SaaS) model. It collects, analyzes and compares important information about medicines and their interactions in relation to patient diagnoses. Aesculap analyses all information to alert the physician to potential prescription errors, inappropriate drug therapy, or adverse effects threatened by the simultaneous use of several specific drugs.
In complex cases, the doctor can thus, in addition to his knowledge, use specialised software that can identify possible threats in terms of drug interactions and contraindications, which in some cases could even endanger the patient’s life. Aesculap thus provides the doctor with the “services and knowledge of a pharmacist” and straightforwardly warns of possible complications.
Where Aesculap data comes from
The expert medication system combines data from multiple sources. It is based on the database of the State Institute for Drug Control, but its creation and regular updating also involves a number of experts from the pharmaceutical staff. The system provides all registration and categorisation data on medicines and is based on an integrated search and analysis of the relationships between individual prescribed medicines, but also between the disease (diagnosis) and the prescribed or recommended medicine. The source data are processed in such a way that medicines can be searched, compared and sorted from different perspectives.
“We consider the ability to evaluate drug contraindications to be a unique functionality of this system and our aim is to make this uniqueness available to as many physicians as possible,” says Branislav Lupták from GAMO, a.s., stressing that the systematic use of Aesculap can support and improve the quality of physicians’ decision-making. “When prescribing medicines, it is necessary to minimize the risks of incorrect pharmacotherapy, which can seriously damage the patient’s health, consequently damaging the reputation of the healthcare institution, and also significantly affecting the costs of patients and insurance companies,” he adds.
Where the drug system is used
Efficiency in physician decision-making helps reduce the cost of medicines and improve the quality of care provided. Thanks to expert software solutions, such as Aesculap, it is possible to reduce the number of medicines being taken at the same time, or to reduce the number of medicines that are sometimes literally prescribed for no purpose.
The Aesculap expert medication system is now part of hospital, outpatient or pharmacy information systems. Doctors use it in our outpatient clinics mainly to help them select and prescribe the right medicines for their patients. In addition, the updating of registered medicines in the application, including homeopathics, medical supplies or medical devices, takes place independently of the hospital or outpatient information system in use.
Solutions in application deployment
“We still offer Aesculap as a native standalone desktop application that is independent of the doctor’s information system in the outpatient clinic or hospital,” says Branislav Lupták. “However, we would gradually like to upgrade this solution and use our existing API integration interface, in which Aesculap would behave as an integrated module and part of the information system,” he adds.
The module will allow the physician to immediately check the relevant relationships for a specific patient medication, resulting in information that will support the correct decision or necessary modification of drug therapy.
The application makes available selected functionalities of the expert medication system directly in the native environment of the outpatient or hospital information system, without the need to leave its interface. This allows the physician to quickly and easily access the necessary information, including package inserts and prescription specifications, directly from their application. This is especially how the Aesculap knowledge base should be used in the future.
“Our goal is to approach other manufacturers and suppliers of outpatient, pharmacy and hospital information systems and enable them to incorporate a connection to the application interface of our expert drug system,” confirms Lupták, while in this way it would be possible to get data from the knowledge-structured database for the support of safe pharmacotherapy directly to physicians in Slovakia, but also abroad.
GAMO currently provides the system in a SaaS model with the working name Aesculap Data as a Service with the benefits of a cloud environment. It is this that provides flexibility, a high level of security, and at the same time provides almost unlimited scalability of the service. Experts manage and update both the data base and the system logic, and the service is thus continuously monitored and highly available.
In the past as Aesculap Apothecary
For several years, the solution has been available free of charge to the general public as the Aesculap Pharmacy mobile app, which allowed the average user to access a large amount of information that is important for the correct selection or use of medicines. “It was a kind of personal interactive tool where you could create your own electronic list of medicines and diagnoses,” explains Branislav Lupták. It was not a substitute for a medical record, but it was at least able to warn the patient about possible risks associated with taking their medication.
The app included registries and functionalities that helped to make the life situation clearer in case of illness and treatment, or even managed to remind people to take their medication. With extensive support, it also provided information on drug prices, possible refunds, side effects, etc. It could be searched in great detail according to various parameters, to check for drug interactions or contraindications. Of course, every patient was obliged to check with his or her doctor or pharmacist about the medicine and the conditions of its use. However, thanks to the Aesculap Pharmacy, patients could keep important information with them at all times.
Patient data security
GAMO follows the legislative requirements of cyber and information security when providing solutions and services. It ensures that all deployed technologies, applications or systems meet the high requirements for IT security, reliable protection and data security that are now a necessity.
“We follow these principles when operating any of our SW solutions, including Aesculap,” emphasizes Branislav Lupták. Aesculap does not store any personal and sensitive patient data that would allow to identify specific persons. During processing, the application uses only the necessary data that is required for proper functioning and evaluation of information or alerts about medication relationships. A secure encrypted connection is used for remote data transmission and the data is safe.
Aesculap at a glance
- More than 10 years of experience in the development and operation of an expert medication system
- More than 100 installations
- API integration into NIS or ambulatory SW = integrated module
- A tool to support safe pharmacotherapy
- Ensures control of drug interactions and CONTRAINDICATIONS
- Evaluates relationships between medicines
- Evaluates the relationship between medicines and diagnoses and patient data
Conceptual solutions and reforms aimed at long-term sustainability are the ideal approach not only for health care. On the table is a modern, expert solution that is easily integrated into existing and new systems and delivers significant benefits to improve the quality of healthcare delivery.
