February 4, 2000 - Midwest Heart Specialists responds to FDA drug warning: Identifies at-risk patients with digital speed
DuPage CountyElmhurst
Naperville
Winfield
Downers Grove
Midwest Heart Specialists responds to FDA drug warning: Identifies at-risk patients with digital speed
Electronic medical record system, lauded last year by the Smithsonian Institution, gives patients a potentially life-saving advantage.
February 4, 2000
When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently warned physicians that the nighttime heartburn drug, Propulsid** (cisapride), may cause fatal heart rhythms, Midwest Heart Specialists electronically sifted through thousands of medical records, identified 283 patients with prescriptions for the drug, and notified them and their primary care physicians of the danger.
The entire process was completed in record time. A single day.
It could easily take days and even weeks to do a hands-on review of an equal number of traditional, paper patient-charts to ferret out the same information. But the task was accomplished in minutes at Midwest Heart Specialists with an electronic medical record system that can scan patients' histories at digital speed and red-flag the names of patients at risk. The group's response to news of potentially life-threatening complications from Propulsid underscores a technological capability unmatched by any other physician group in the area.
Midwest Heart Specialists pioneered the use of wireless computing in a clinical settingan initiative that brought national recognition by the Smithsonian Institution last year. Physicians carry wireless hand-held computers to record their patients' medical information. The medical records are stored in a secure, confidential database that can readily retrieve patient-sensitive information when, for example, a drug recall or a drug-interaction alert requires urgent action.
Midwest Heart Specialists is a physician practice of 33 board-certified cardiovascular specialists with four clinical offices in Naperville, Carol Stream, Downers Grove and Elmhurst, and four satellite offices in Yorkville, Bolingbrook, Sycamore and Sandwich.
**Propulsid is used to treat heartburn for acid reflux disease, a condition caused by a backflow of stomach acid into the esophagus. The drug hastens the movement of liquid and solid food through the digestive tract, reducing the likelihood of heartburn. The FDA and the drug's manufacturer, Janssen Pharmaceutica, warn that people with certain disorderssuch as congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, advanced cancer and electrolyte problemsshould not take the drug. Propulsid may cause serious interactions with other medications, including certain antibiotics, antidepressants, antifungals and protease inhibitors. An estimated 6 million prescriptions for Propulsid were filled last year.