SafeUseNow Wins 2014 Knight News Challenge: Health Award; Project to help reduce prescription drug abuse in the United States
Encinitas, CA (PRWEB) January 17, 2014 -- SafeUseNow℠ will use data to identify incidents of prescription drug abuse with $208,000 in funding, as a winner of the Knight News Challenge: Health.
The challenge, launched in August 2013 by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, sought ideas that harness the power of data and information for the health of communities. Winners were announced Tuesday at the Clinton Foundation 2014 Health Matters conference in La Quinta, California.
The winning SafeUseNow℠ submission is titled, “A Solution for California's Local Community Health Plans to Reduce the Risk and Cost of Prescription Drug Abuse.” Since the 1990s, prescription drug abuse has significantly increased in the United States. However, a lack of actionable information about prescription drug abuse risk, despite the increase of state monitoring programs, makes it difficult to combat the problem.
SafeUseNow℠ aims to help reduce abuse by making prescribing safer and more effective. The program uses data to identify combinations of prescribers, patients and pharmacies who may be contributing to the problem. This information helps pharmacies, insurance companies and other health care stakeholders educate prescribers to more effectively and safely treat patients. It also allows them to monitor prescribing patterns for changes in trends and behavior. A successful pilot with one health plan provider achieved a significant reduction in key risk factors. With Knight Foundation funding, the team will scale the project for use by Medicaid plans in California and aims to spread around the country.
“We are thrilled with our selection as a Knight News Challenge winner,” said Patrick J. Burns, President of Principled Strategies, the Encinitas, California-based developer of SafeUseNow℠. “The prescription drug abuse rate in our Medicaid population is 10 times the rate in the privately insured population. This grant funds delivery of a powerful, validated prescription drug abuse solution to a progressive Medicaid health plan that is ready and eager to aggressively tackle this problem.”
“SafeUseNow℠ uses data to address a pervasive problem,” said Michael Maness, Knight Foundation vice president of journalism and media innovation. “Prescription drug abuse is an issue that communities can engage around, revealing the impact that data can have on their lives.”
About SafeUseNow℠
SafeUseNow℠ is a risk identification and intervention program developed by Principled Strategies, a health care consultancy with expertise in predictive analytics, optimization, and risk analysis. The SafeUseNow℠ advantage is 17 predictive risk factors discovered in a multi-year study of physician prescribing, pharmacy dispensing, and patient utilization of controlled substances. SafeUseNow℠ is an actionable solution for systematically and efficiently combating the misuse, abuse, addiction and diversion of controlled substances.
For more, visit http://www.safeusenow.com and follow #safeusenow on Twitter.
Twitter: @SafeUseNow, @PJBatSUN
Video: http://kng.ht/1991yzg
About the Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism excellence world-wide and invests in the vitality of communities in the Unites States where the Knight brothers once owned newspapers. Knight Foundation invests in ideas and projects that can lead to transformational change.
Contacts:
Patrick J. Burns, President, Principled Strategies, 760-230-6323, patrick.burns(at)safeusenow.com
Anusha Alikhan, Director of Communications, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, 305-908-2677, media(at)knightfoundation.org
Patrick J. Burns, Principled Strategies, Inc., http://www.safeusenow.com, +1 (760) 230-6323, [email protected]
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