Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2008, $400,000)
Since the beginning of FY 2002, Congress has appropriated funding to the U.S. Department of Justice to support the Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. Prescription drug monitoring programs enhance the capacity of regulatory and law enforcement agencies to collect and analyze controlled substance prescription data through a centralized database administered by an authorized state agency. These programs are designed to help prevent and detect the diversion and abuse of pharmaceutical controlled substances, particularly at the retail level where no other automated information collection system exists.
States that have implemented prescription drug monitoring programs have the capability of collecting and analyzing prescription data much more efficiently than states without such programs where the collection of prescription information requires the manual review of pharmacy files which is a very time consuming and invasive process. The increased efficiency of prescription drug monitoring programs allows for the early detection of abuse trends and possible sources of diversion.
The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies will utilize the FY 2008 Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Enhancement award to improve the current system, provide interstate connectivity, and conduct an evaluation of the program's effectiveness. Colorado proposes to update the American Society for Automation in Pharmacy (ASAP) standard currently being used from the 1995 to the 2005 standard. This upgrade will incorporate more data elements and reduce the dependency on external reference sources and data entry, which will ultimately eliminate the risk of inaccuracy due to human error. This award will expand the state's PDMP data to be available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week to all licensed pharmacists and prescribers of controlled substances; consumers requesting their personal profiles; and, law enforcement through court order or subpoena. The grant funds will be used to fund a full time PDMP Assistant, travel to conferences, provide training, and contractual costs to complete the proposed enhancements.
CA/NCF