SAFESCRIPT has won an Australian Information Industry Association award.
The Victorian real-time prescription monitoring system was honoured for innovation and excellence in the category of Infrastructure and Platforms Innovation of the Year.
Developers, the Fred IT Group, congratulated the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services for SafeScript, which addresses the problem of accidental misuse of prescription medications by providing clinicians with alerts based on the real-time monitoring of prescription data captured via the electronic transfer of prescriptions through eRx Script Exchange and MediSecure.
The first clinicians started using SafeScript during patient consultations last year (PD 02 Oct 18), with over 57,000 alerts having been sent out across Victoria since.
"As pharmacists, we continue to see the devastating toll that occurs in the community as a result of the misuse of prescription medications," Fred IT Group CEO, Paul Naismith, said.
"With last week's release of the Australian Overdose Report, we know that the number of deaths occurring through accidental overdose continues to grow (PD 28 Aug).
"We applaud the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services for taking leadership on this vital issue.
"We can already see the evidence in terms of how many people SafeScript is helping...it is gratifying to see SafeScript being recognised for its role in reducing clinical risk for vulnerable Victorians and, now through the national data exchange, available to all Australians."
Telstra owns 50% of Fred IT Group alongside the Pharmacy Guild, and Telstra Health Managing Director, Mary Foley, said, "SafeScript is one of Fred's and Telstra Health's great successes, partnering with governments, clinicians and pharmacists to reduce the incidence of opioid and other controlled substance abuse, preventing avoidable deaths."
After initial trials of the platform, SafeScript became a full statewide Victorian initiative just over five months ago (PD 02 Apr).
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